Bridge to Terabithia - 4/5
The children’s book upon which this is based is rather less known here than in the States, which might work in the film’s favour as two thirds of the way through it pulls the kind of twist that breaks all Hollywood rules for making a children’s film. That it works and adds new levels of emotional depth to an already moving and well-told tale is a tribute both to the source material to the excellent adaptation here.
The story centres around two outsiders who form a friendship based on their imaginations and conjure up their own magical world to escape from bullying at school and pressures at home. Jesse (an impressive Josh Hutcherson) is a gifted artist, picked on at school and pressured by his hard and hard-up father at home. New-girl Leslie is another outsider, but through her imagination and sheer vivacity they form a strong bond.
Terabithia (named as a tribute to Narnia, where there is an Isle of Terebinthia) is the magical world they conjure up. Fortunately, the film resists the temptation to become too CG effect heavy – the effects serve the imagination of the children. And the film is actually strongest when dealing with real world issues as the children take their new found skills and confidence back into school in order to make changes.
Of the adults, Robert Patrick is good as Jesse’s dad and Zooey Deschanel (Elf, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) underused as the music teacher who spots Jesse’s potential. But the real stars are the children – Hutcherson and especially AnnaSophia Robb as Leslie. Previously seen as Violet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, she gives a performance slightly reminiscent of a young Natalie Portman and displays a real star quality which might give Dakota Fanning some competition over the next few years.
A very well done children’s film with humour, a bit of magic, a surprisingly dark side and a whole lot f heart. Highly recommended for the young and adults who aren’t too embarrassed at the thought of it.
Goodbye Bafana – 3/5
To capture a 20 years plus friendship in a two hour film is always going to be a challenge. When said friendship is between a prison guard and one of his charges the challenge increases. When the inmate in question is Nelson Mandela, it becomes nigh on impossible. The result is that this film, an adaptation of the book of the same title, feels frustratingly episodic with not enough sense of the development of relationship.
Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer from 24) is
physically not a good match for Mandela. Vocally he stumbles a bit with the accent. Where he scores and scores well is in capturing the natural leadership, the charm and restrained charisma, the humanity, passion and dignity. In the early encounters between him and ambitious Warder (Joseph Fiennes) it is interesting to note how in command of things he is, even when in chains.
I’m not a fan of Fiennes in general – he too often tries to replace genuine emotion with an excess of pouting – but his performance here is pleasingly adept and mature. It would be facile and untrue to say that he becomes just as much a prisoner of the system as Mandela, but as his career becomes bound up with the ANC leader and his respect for the man grows along with his unease at the apartheid system, he does become trapped by events and circumstance. Ultimately, the films flaws are not down to Fiennes’ performance, but rather to the fact that there is just too much of him. The problems he and wife (Diane Kruger – Troy, National Treasure) encounter are competently enough done, but miss the fact that they are only really interesting as an example of the impact Mandela had on white South Africa and there is just not enough of the encounters between them to give a real impression of how and why he changes.
The script feels slightly heavy-handed in places, too, but things generally improve when we move past the stereotypically racist attitudes of the whites in the first section. This is a flawed, but still interesting offering – it lacks some of the complexity and coherence of Catch a Fire (released earlier this year) also dealing with the struggle against apartheid. Ultimately, if left me wanting to read the book to get a fuller picture, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.
My Best Friend – 2.5/5
Imagine a standard rom-com plot applied to a friendship and done in French. Miserly antiques collector (Daniel Auteuil) makes bet that he can produce best friend in 10 days, recruits general knowledge know-it-all taxi driver (Dany Boon) to help him become more friendly, forms friendship with said taxi driver, blows it big style and comes to the realisation of what he’s been lacking all along, makes selfless sacrifice to benefit friend leading to eventual reconciliation.
Not a very original storyline, but not totally lacking potential. Potential that this film sadly fails to realise. Auteuil is one of France’s best known and prolific actors (appearing in 36 and Hidden last year), but here forgets to turn off the charisma and thus is utterly unconvincing as somebody with no friends. There are further inconsistencies – his longing for the vase, which leads to the bet suggests a deeper longing for friendship, but nothing else he does until the end of the film backs this up. Those people who tell him he has no friends, seem to be always seeking him out and desiring friendship with him if only he’d notice. The peripheral roles are totally underdeveloped, including a mistress who comes and goes in his life.
All in all, it just doesn’t add up, but the Auteuil and Boon are always entertaining and watchable and lift the film into the not bad category.
The children’s book upon which this is based is rather less known here than in the States, which might work in the film’s favour as two thirds of the way through it pulls the kind of twist that breaks all Hollywood rules for making a children’s film. That it works and adds new levels of emotional depth to an already moving and well-told tale is a tribute both to the source material to the excellent adaptation here.
The story centres around two outsiders who form a friendship based on their imaginations and conjure up their own magical world to escape from bullying at school and pressures at home. Jesse (an impressive Josh Hutcherson) is a gifted artist, picked on at school and pressured by his hard and hard-up father at home. New-girl Leslie is another outsider, but through her imagination and sheer vivacity they form a strong bond.
Terabithia (named as a tribute to Narnia, where there is an Isle of Terebinthia) is the magical world they conjure up. Fortunately, the film resists the temptation to become too CG effect heavy – the effects serve the imagination of the children. And the film is actually strongest when dealing with real world issues as the children take their new found skills and confidence back into school in order to make changes.
Of the adults, Robert Patrick is good as Jesse’s dad and Zooey Deschanel (Elf, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) underused as the music teacher who spots Jesse’s potential. But the real stars are the children – Hutcherson and especially AnnaSophia Robb as Leslie. Previously seen as Violet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, she gives a performance slightly reminiscent of a young Natalie Portman and displays a real star quality which might give Dakota Fanning some competition over the next few years.
A very well done children’s film with humour, a bit of magic, a surprisingly dark side and a whole lot f heart. Highly recommended for the young and adults who aren’t too embarrassed at the thought of it.
Goodbye Bafana – 3/5
To capture a 20 years plus friendship in a two hour film is always going to be a challenge. When said friendship is between a prison guard and one of his charges the challenge increases. When the inmate in question is Nelson Mandela, it becomes nigh on impossible. The result is that this film, an adaptation of the book of the same title, feels frustratingly episodic with not enough sense of the development of relationship.
Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer from 24) is
physically not a good match for Mandela. Vocally he stumbles a bit with the accent. Where he scores and scores well is in capturing the natural leadership, the charm and restrained charisma, the humanity, passion and dignity. In the early encounters between him and ambitious Warder (Joseph Fiennes) it is interesting to note how in command of things he is, even when in chains.I’m not a fan of Fiennes in general – he too often tries to replace genuine emotion with an excess of pouting – but his performance here is pleasingly adept and mature. It would be facile and untrue to say that he becomes just as much a prisoner of the system as Mandela, but as his career becomes bound up with the ANC leader and his respect for the man grows along with his unease at the apartheid system, he does become trapped by events and circumstance. Ultimately, the films flaws are not down to Fiennes’ performance, but rather to the fact that there is just too much of him. The problems he and wife (Diane Kruger – Troy, National Treasure) encounter are competently enough done, but miss the fact that they are only really interesting as an example of the impact Mandela had on white South Africa and there is just not enough of the encounters between them to give a real impression of how and why he changes.
The script feels slightly heavy-handed in places, too, but things generally improve when we move past the stereotypically racist attitudes of the whites in the first section. This is a flawed, but still interesting offering – it lacks some of the complexity and coherence of Catch a Fire (released earlier this year) also dealing with the struggle against apartheid. Ultimately, if left me wanting to read the book to get a fuller picture, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.
My Best Friend – 2.5/5
Imagine a standard rom-com plot applied to a friendship and done in French. Miserly antiques collector (Daniel Auteuil) makes bet that he can produce best friend in 10 days, recruits general knowledge know-it-all taxi driver (Dany Boon) to help him become more friendly, forms friendship with said taxi driver, blows it big style and comes to the realisation of what he’s been lacking all along, makes selfless sacrifice to benefit friend leading to eventual reconciliation.
Not a very original storyline, but not totally lacking potential. Potential that this film sadly fails to realise. Auteuil is one of France’s best known and prolific actors (appearing in 36 and Hidden last year), but here forgets to turn off the charisma and thus is utterly unconvincing as somebody with no friends. There are further inconsistencies – his longing for the vase, which leads to the bet suggests a deeper longing for friendship, but nothing else he does until the end of the film backs this up. Those people who tell him he has no friends, seem to be always seeking him out and desiring friendship with him if only he’d notice. The peripheral roles are totally underdeveloped, including a mistress who comes and goes in his life.
All in all, it just doesn’t add up, but the Auteuil and Boon are always entertaining and watchable and lift the film into the not bad category.
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