MovieChat Forums > Bridge to Terabithia (2007) Discussion > Do you think Jess had a 'thing' for Lesl...

Do you think Jess had a 'thing' for Leslie?

posted 13 years ago by AlaskaJimmy
16 replies | jump to latest

I like to believe that he didn't. Because I truly believe in boy-girl friendship and they seem to have a perfect one, but I'm still confused about the way he was looking at her when they were saying their 'see ya' in the rain. And also the plot on Wikipedia says 'They decide to go home when it starts raining and the creek gets higher than ever, and Jesse realizes that he has fallen in love with Leslie as she runs back to her house.' Really? I never got the feeling that he fell in love.

[–] frederickelliot 13 years ago

I think he had to, to experience the kind of loss that he obviously went through in the aftermath.

[–] MadTom 13 years ago

If you listen to the Director's Commentary for the movie during the scene where they part for the last time in the rain, Gabor Csupo specifically says that Jess has begun to fall in love with Leslie and is giving her the exact same starry-eyed look he gave Miss Edmunds at the beginning of the movie.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Bale-Pearce-Oldman 12 years ago

Fallen in love in the sense of falling in a deeper friendship is how I interpreted that. But you know, as they grow old they'll eventually have that romantic feeling.

Too bad we'll never see it played out

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Giving you a slow-clap, Señor Chang style.

[–] kelly-527 12 years ago

I disagree to a certain degree. I think he was more than "in love" with her. She was his best friend and opened up a whole new world for her. I like to think if they had grown up then there would be something between them, but at this point Leslie was his best friend in the most important way possible. There would never be anyone like her.

[–] hoosierdaddy500 12 years ago

How could he not fall in love with her? She was a wonderful, special person and she was pretty to boot. Every boy/man's dream is to find a girl like that. A girl who is your best friend and you're in love with. I would have liked to have seen them grow up together and get married. If this was a real life story you would never get over a girl like that. I don't care how young you were when you knew her.

[–] hoosierdaddy500 12 years ago

I really hated that she died. I almost cried (I'm a 29 year old man). And of course I not only felt bad for her but I really felt for him because he will go his whole life and probably never meet a girl who had the kind of impact as she did on him. (of course i do realize its a movie!) but Like I said I don't care how young they were, you never forget a person like that.

[–] hoosierdaddy500 12 years ago

So I guess the lesson I learned is if you have someone truly special in your life, whether it's your spouse, your kids, or whoever, make sure you never take that for granted. Spend as much time as you can with them because you never know when they could be gone. Or you for that matter.

[–] vct33 12 years ago

I think he was no more than a few weeks from banging her when she died.\

My rhymes are so potent that in this small segment I made all of the ladies on IMDb pregnant.

[–] ParanoidAndroid97 12 years ago

I think that if you were his age, with no friends and a dad so despicable that he shouldn't be surprised if you make him swallow his keys, and then suddenly a really pretty girl with a magnetic personality comes into your neighborhood and clearly thinks you're friend material, you'd have to be either gay, asexual, a cyborg or in a vegetative state to NOT fall in love with her.

If God gives you lemons, make lemonade. If given melons, return them and tell God he needs glasses

[–] kayser-8 12 years ago

i enjoyed reading this. there is a web site ( fanfiction.net ) where you can see and write all kinds of things like this.

[–] kainxiorcal 11 years ago

How could he not fall in love with her? She was a wonderful, special person and she was pretty to boot. Every boy/man's dream is to find a girl like that. A girl who is your best friend and you're in love with. I would have liked to have seen them grow up together and get married. If this was a real life story you would never get over a girl like that. I don't care how young you were when you knew her.

Completely agree with everything you said. When I saw the movie, I wondered to myself if I would have enough mental fortitude (or disregard for emotions?) to carry on if I was Jess.

(Although, possibly at Jess' young age, a person may think that a special person such as Leslie wouldn't be too uncommon to meet again. That's why a lot of people like to say "there are plenty of fish in the sea" though they fail to mention the quality of those fishes.)

Endure and Survive
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Are you carrying the fire?

[–] waterdrops9 12 years ago

Do you think Jess had a thing for Leslie? I like to believe that he didn't. Because I truly believe in boy-girl friendship and they seem to have a perfect one.

I agree. It's nice to have a friend of the opposite sex like that. And it's nice to know that guys and girls can just be friends- so I won't have to worry if my boyfriend has female friends. The 2nd time I watched this movie- I thought he was looking at her that way because that's the last time he saw her alive.

[–] Moeshia 11 years ago

But when he was explaining to his dad about how he thought her death was his fault becauseI of the museum trip with Ms Edmunds, he mentioned that he didn't *want* to invite her, like he was really happy spending a day alone with the teacher. So it didn't really seem like he was in love with her. Unless maybe he realized he loved her after.

[–] mafarie 11 years ago

I got the feeling that he was realizing he was in love with her, at that moment. That doesn't diminish their pre-existing boy-girl friendship, though. They were definitely friends.

[–] ToHelenBackAgain 11 years ago

I agree, mafarie. There's nothing mutually exclusive about the two things.

Spare the rod, spoil the child, incite a civil war.