the broomstitch

So, is it worth watching? Or should it be given a miss?

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I'd suggest waiting for the DVD.

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You have to see Bridge to Terabithia . It's a wonderful movie, the most gender-egalitarian children's movie I've ever seen, with gorgeous visuals and a moving yet unsentimental narrative. Minor nit-pick - mediocre pop songs on the soundtrack.

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That's a good recommendation.

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I had seen the ads on TV but didn't realize it was now out. Can you tell me what it's about, without spoiling the surprises of course?

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It's set somewhere in that mythical land called Middle America. There's this farm boy (well, his dad works at a hardware store) who's good at art, and the new rich girl who's moved in next door who's good with words and whose parents are writers. They discover (or is it invent?) a magical land named, of course, Terabithia. They have difficulties at school and adventures in Terabithia. I think they're 12-13 in the movie.

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Hmm... That sounds quite interesting. I take it from your earlier comments that girls are as active as the boys in the plot's unfolding.

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That they are, though I don't think it fulfills the Mo Movie Measure.

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What is the Mo Movie Measure?

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I think that's what it's called, basically it's this test to see how nonsexist a movie is. If a movie has two of its main female characters talking about something other than one of its male characters, it passes the Mo Movie Measure.

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I wonder why it's called 'Mo' though. (I blame my two years of Latin in high-school for liking to know why things are called what they are called.)

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pedanther

"Mo" is the name of the person to whom it is attributed.

(That's the short answer. This is a longer answer.)

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Ah hah! It was too obvious, I guess.

(Say, your name sounds familiar. I've seen you around Making Light, haven't I?)

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pedanther

Yes. I'm "Paul A." at Making Light.

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Duly noted, Paul, and welcome to this little corner of cyberspace.

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Oh, okay.

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I knew, going in, that the movie was going to require bringing my suspension of disbelief to the near-breaking point, and I was willing to, because of the premise. I was willing to pay no attention to the Man Behind the Curtain. Unfortunately, making the FAA the villain made me wonder if I had wound up in one of Analog's Libertarian wet dreams. There is a reason why we have those rules about being able to acquire highly explosive substances, and rules about flying a multi-ton object across the sky. And the hero making death threats to a bank employee because his own financial irresponsibility left them no choice didn't endear him to me.

Still, the movie had Bruce Dern in a small role.

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Ah. In short, a very bad fantasy, comparable, perhaps, to "Falling Down".

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That's the 1993 movie with Michael Douglas, right? I've never seen it, but, from what I heard, The Astronaut Farmer isn't quite that bad. Anyway, if they were aiming for a rocketry's version of Field of Dreams, they definitely didn't succeed.

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