Day 77: Bridge to Terabithia

Don’t decide to pick a children’s film because you think it’ll be short and cute. It will just break your heart. I always make the worst decisions.

Jess (Josh Hutcherson) has no friends and has to do a lot for his family because they have very little money, leaving him little opportunity to just be a kid and enjoy himself. Until Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) starts at his school and moves in right next door. She opens his imagination up to a world of adventure and they have the best time. For a little while.

Their friendship is quick to start, which are just the best ones, in my opinion. It’s like you can tell there’s something about this other person that just goes with you so well, even if you don’t know them yet. And she helps him to become more of the person he is, which is always great. They discover an area in the woods that nobody else goes to and they make it their own magical kingdom called Terabithia. They use their imaginations to populate it with magical creatures and beautiful scenery. At first he is a bit hesitant to play along but soon enough he can see everything she sees and they get to share in it together. I love how he’s looking at her, obviously I would. It’s like he knows she’s this rare person and is amazed that he gets to be around her. And when he leaves her for the day he is smiling because he’s had such a great time with her. Ugh, I can’t bear it.

The only problem in this wonderful story of love and friendship is, in order to get to their kingdom, they have to cross a creek using an old rope swing. One day she goes across herself and the rope snaps and she hits her head and drowns. Drowns! I knew something was going to happen (the music when they first saw the rope was epic foreshadowing music, if ever I’ve heard it) but I didn’t think they’d make her get knocked unconscious and drown. A wonderful child is dead, her family is devastated, and Jess has lost his best friend.  Why can’t she just be alive and they can be all loved up forever? I don’t want it to mirror real life, I want there to be a happily ever after here.

Also, Zooey Deschanel has become the female Christopher Walken; she just shows up in everything, for no reason. She wasn’t terrible in this though. That’s some high praise coming from me.

7/10

Day 39: Terminator 2

This is my Dad’s pick for favourite film. It’s not actually his favourite though, that would be Titanic. But he didn’t want to be known for that so he picked an action one instead. Oops, secret’s out.

Sent back from the future to protect whiny bastard John Connor, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger – I didn’t even look that up, I just knew how to spell it. I’m good.) kills a lot of people and causes a lot of explosions.

John asks the Terminator if he’s scared of dying. I’ve always wondered about why people are scared of dying. What is there to be scared of? It’s always interested me. How will I die? What would it feel like? What would be my very last thought? That’s a puzzling one. I hope I think of something profound or comforting, at least. But I guess you can’t know until it happens. Are people who kill themselves less scared than those who die naturally, I wonder? Or maybe they’re just as scared but what’s haunting them is much worse than anything they think might happen when they die.

Time travel is interesting to me, too. In films there always ends up being paradoxes. In this, for example, they destroy all the work and the chips and both Terminators and yet, both of them still exist to be sent back. I’ve not seen any of the Terminator films after this one so I don’t know if they explain it there so maybe they do. I’ve always said I’d go forwards if I could travel in time but obviously that’s a lie. I would do what everybody else would and I’d go back to that time of the one major regret and I’d change it. But then if you change something so pivotal in your life, it completely changes who you are, I think. I’d not be me. Which, I think we’ll all agree, would be nice. Hopefully time travel happens during my lifetime.

Don’t really have too much to say about the film itself. Lots of explosions and cheesy dialogue. Linda Hamilton is a bit of a badass. It’s an alright film but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it.

6/10

Day 24: Walk the Line

The film follows the life of Johnny Cash as he makes it as a musician, falls in love, makes a lot of mistakes and then gets back on track. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were wonderful here. They had so much chemistry and their voices weren’t half bad either. Watching this film I realised I know little to nothing about Johnny Cash and that’s a damn shame.

While I understand we’re all wanting Johnny and June to be together, it must have been horrible to be Vivian. She had to sit by while he was in love with someone else. And so clearly in love with someone else. Yeah, she wasn’t all that supportive but you can see the sense in that, he was away all the time on tours and she was left to look after the children. Apparently (according to that ol’ bastion of knowledge, Wikipedia) they had only dated for 3 weeks before he was off for 3 years in the Air Force. During the time he was gone they sent hundreds of love letters and when he came back they got married. That’s such a brilliant story. He probably did love her but then with June he had something else, something that seemed to bring him alive.

I’d be interested in watching a film about June because her part in all of this was so important. Like I said, I think she brought Cash alive and she cares for him throughout despite how painful it is for her sometimes. When he falls in the lake she jumps right in after him. She keeps him safe while he goes through withdrawal. That scene when he wakes up and she hands him the raspberries was just beautiful. He looked so happy that she had stayed with him and took care of him when he needed it.

And I love the way she looks at him. So much love and pain in her eyes. And when he’s singing in the prison she just looks so proud of him. Looks are important, y’know? You can hide so much in words but it’s so hard to hide your feelings in a look. While writing this I’ve been listening to/watching some Johnny Cash songs and videos, to get the feel of it. The way they’re looking at each other in the videos... I can’t stand it, it’s wonderful.

8/10