Tim's Web Log #3

Tim's Web Log #3
Thoughts and opinions of an opinionated person

Mon, 19 Feb 2007

I'm told that some college kids have a tradition of "suicide night", where they rent and view a whole series of very depressing movies. The usual list includes such gems as "1984", "A Clockwork Orange", and "Brazil".

After this weekend, I feel confident that the new Disney flick "Bridge to Terabithia" could be added to this list. For God's sake, don't take children to this movie!

It's not enough just to have a couple of sad scenes, followed by a cheerful and cleansing resolution. Instead, this movie just keeps on bashing you with the sad stick. (Whack) Look, this boy's home life sucks. (Whack) Look, his school life is utter torture. (Whack) Look, all the kids hate him. (Whack) Look, his mother likes his sisters better. (Whack) Look, his dad doesn't like him either. (Whack) Look, he lost a foot race to a girl. (Whack) Look, he gets blamed for things he didn't do. (Whack) Look, he betrays his only friend in the world. (Whack) Just when he finally does make a friend, she dies.

Holy moly. If there were any redeeming aspects to this movie, I must have missed them. It was a complete downer from beginning to end. They should have therapists on call standing outside the theater.

No stars from me.

[15:05] | [] | # | G | Comments(3) |

# From extremecritic at Tue Feb 20 04:47:43 2007:

i did a google blog search for the movie and found you review. after reading it, i just had to write something. um, the book has some sad parts (thus why the movie does), but calling it a suicide flick is just ridiculous. come on, as sad/depressing as 1984?

# From Tim Roberts at Fri Feb 23 10:59:26 2007:

I had not read the book, and the trailers and ads led me to expect something ENTIRELY different from what I got. Plus, it's my blog, so I can exaggerate if I want to. ;)

But, yes, I think it is just as depressing as "1984". I kept waiting for the release, and it never came.

# From Cynthia at Sun Mar 18 14:28:35 2007:

I acquire used kids books to give away at the local food pantry. As it happens, I read the book from which this movie was made, about 3 months ago---just in time to be completely nonplused by the movie ads on TV. The book was published about 30 years ago, won the "prestigious" Newbery Award for kids books, and really was quite good. In the entire book there was not a single goblin, monster, or any of the other stuff featured in the movie trailers. The book was about 2 kids in a rural area who make friends and do have an imaginary kingdom in a wooded area that's hard to get to, and they do call each other King and Queen of the place, and note a spiritual atmosphere in an impressive grove of trees, maybe even that the trees have a "life", but the author does not describe any scenes like those in the movie trailer. Her topic is how together the children grow up vis-a-vis the demands of their lives, which were difficult. The girl was the child of hippie intellectuals from the city who "moved to the country" for her and then ignored her; the boy's family was very poor and thought his artistic bent a waste of time. Kids at school made fun of them both. The usual growing up stuff for a young adult book. [But lately it has occurred to me that one of the differences between a YA book and an adult book, is that in the former the protagonists DO grow and change. Not so common in current adult fiction.]
According to the newspaper the author's son was the producer, or liaison anyway, for this movie, and his mother, who is still alive, cannot be very pleased.