If a young actress has worked with actors like Johnny Depp, Hilary Swank and Samual L. Jackson in her last four movies I would call that rather impressive. Not that many young actors manage to work with that many experienced actors, especially if you consider that she has a movie coming up with Charlize Theron. So is it who we’re talking about? AnnaSophia Robb, probably just a vague notion to most people.

Her first role in a big Hollywood movie was in the horrible remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I liked the original, each minute of that movie was just an insult to the original), her role was rather small though and the movie was a success none the less. Her first really successful movie in which she starred was Bridge to Terabithia, I’ve heard mixed opinions about this movie. Besides the fact that Disney managed to completely screw up the marketing for the movie leaving a lot of pissed off fantasy fans. If you make a movie which is presented as by the makers of the Chronicles of Narnia and then release a trailer which shows a fantasy world you’d expect a fantasy movie.

That wasn’t the case, what people got was how a lonely boy befriends the new girl in school (AnnaSophia in this case) which completely changes his life. Turning him from a sad lonely boy into a happy one. If it then turns out that the last minute of the movie is pretty much the trailer of course you’ll get pissed off fantasy fans. If they had marketed it as what kind of movie it actually was it might have done better, despite it being a box office success. I’m just glad I saw the movie before seeing the trailer, though when I watched the trailer afterwards I wondered what movie it was for.

Though that’s more about the movie than about AnnaSophia; who pretty much managed to carry the movie in my opinion. Of course her character died in the movie but for the time she was alive she was easily the best actor of the bunch. The fact that the movie was a success will probably brand her as another Disney actress to some people, even though this is her only Disney project to date though she has another one lined up for the future. Witch Mountain is set to be released in March 2009.

She also took care of one of the songs on the soundtrack of the movie; which made that fact even stranger is that they played that song in the movie on the radio. Not really good for the logic of the movie but it seems like they needed to fill the soundtrack only with people that are signed to Disney in one way or another. I mean the girl can sing but her voice just doesn’t really stand out that much. I don’t think she has any intention of starting a music career anyway.

Her other big movie in 2007 was The Reaping, you would think it’s intimidating co-starring with double Oscar winner Hilary Swank but apparently it isn’t. AnnaSophia managed to stand her own against Hilary which is always a danger if a movie revolves about one main character. Though I have to admit that the movie sucked, not due to the performances by the actors but due to the movie itself. Sometimes a movie concept just doesn’t work. A movie doesn’t always have to be successful though, for AnnaSophia it was just another step in her career. There’s a lot a young actress can learn from someone like Hilary Swank.

Her last movie for 2007 was Have Dreams, Will Travel which is a smaller independent movie which hasn’t been released to the main cinema audience yet. Which is a tad weird to be honest but not bad in general, AnnaSophia managed to pull of a solid performance in that movie. Of course this isn’t a movie that will get a high box office gross but not all movies are made to do that.

Right now she can be seen in Jumper in which she only has a small part, so it’s not really a movie connected to her. Which isn’t getting very good reviews so far, I myself of course haven’t seen it yet. But it’s the kind of role that someone like AnnaSophia needs to do, it gives her the chance to work with experienced actors and it gets her some attention from a larger audience.

For AnnaSophia the most important movie of the year would be Sleepwalking, it’s not a wide release movie it will only have a limited release. It’s a movie with Charlize Theron but here’s the surprise: Theron isn’t the star of the movie; AnnaSophia is. Working with an Oscar winner is one thing but actually having a bigger part in a movie with one puts some pressure on a young actress like AnnaSophia. Though I’m confident that she’ll manage to hold her own.

Of course she’s a long way from being an established actress yet but she’s managing fine so far. She’s getting good reviews from people and is working with experienced actors to learn from. That combined with the fact that she also has the support from a company like Disney without being branded as one of the typical Disney stars sets her up for the future really. I’m almost forgetting the fact that she actually seems to have real acting talent, not something that can be said of all actresses her age. I can only see her career failing if she completely screws up if she continues on the path she has been on so far there will be a lot of AnnaSophia to come in the future.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 2:14 pm and is filed under AnnaSophia Robb, Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.