Before I get to the above film let me advise anyone who might be curious about the film reviewed below that most of the musical sequences from "The Wayward Cloud" are available to view on You-Tube and they are well worth a look.
There were some positive vibes about the above Disney production based on a popular children's novel, but I was unsure just what to expect. It is an intelligent and totally non-saccharine examination of pre-teen anxieties and the power of the imagination, but I somehow see it as appealing more to adults than youngsters, since there is a downbeat twist towards the end of the tale, one that is only partly compensated for by the upbeat ending. Young actor Josh Hutcherson familiar to me from "Zathura..." and "Little Manhattan" plays the middle child amongst four sisters. Artistically inclined and aware of the financial strains his parents face, he is bullied at school and is generally alienated. Into his life comes a new classmate and neighbour in the shape of AnnaSophia Robb, so very good in "Because of Winn-Dixie"; she is the only child of some free-thinking writers, manages to win Hutcherson 's trust, and helps his imagination to take wing at they create and explore the mythical land of Terabithia. I took these two to be about 12 years-old, but I gather that they are only meant to be 10 or so. Since they were respectively 15 and 14 when the film was made, they were technically too old to play believable pre-teens, but this didn't really distract from the tale, although I do find Robb's dark brows and very blonde hair just a wee bit creepy. The other two actors of note were the wee thing who played Hutcherson's younger sister, with whom he must share a bedroom, and Zooey Deschanel as a happy-clappy music teacher. Robert Patrick as Hutcherson's stressed father was an unhappy combination of sternness and repressed love, believable but not really likeable. The limited but judicious use of CGI effects to underline the children's fantasies add to the appeal, but this would have been nearly as successful a film without them. But keep the tissues at the ready!
I'm off for one of my occasional New York visits in a day or so and therefore will not be posting anything new until the beginning of April. But you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll have seen a film or two in the meantime. See you soon...
1 comment:
Probably meant to be uplifting but more than a little downbeat - I thought the
girl playing the female bully was good (Lauren Clinton, I think) and agree that
Bailee Madison as the youngest sister deserves a mention. I was left with a
finally disappointing reaction but cannot quite work out why.
Post a Comment