The Lovely Bones (Dreamworks)
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Amanda Michalka, Jake Abel, Rose McIver, Michael Imperioli, Nikki SooHoo, Reece Ritchie, Thomas McCarthy, Andrew James Allen.
Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, based on the novel by Alice Sebold.
Directed by Peter Jackson.
GRADE: B
REVIEWCrimes against children, especially abductions and sexual assaults are always a touchy subject, particularly on film. There's nothing creepier than seeing a child in danger, and it's those kind of scenes that make Peter Jackson's
The Lovely Bones - not so lovely.
Saoirse Ronan stars as Susie Salmon, a teen girl living with her family in rural Pennsylvannia during the early 1970s. Susie narrates the story as she describes her life before, during and after her brutal abduction, rape and murder.
After her death, Susie's world transforms into a dream-like spirit world, best described as somewhere between Earth and Heaven. It's a strange existence; sometimes ugly, but often seen with fields of flowers, gorgeous pastures and forest landscapes. Susie, meets another girl in the limbo-like land named Holly, who advises her on matters of her past life.
Meanwhile, Susie's family is torn apart by her death, even though her body is never located. Susie's father Jack and Abigail (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) are at first obsessed with finding her killer, but their marriage soon falls apart, even with domestic help from Abigail's mother Lynn (Susan Sarandon). Abigail eventually leaves her family behind as well.
Meanwhile, it's no secret as to the identity of the killer; it's the Salmon's neighbor George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), who schemed and trapped Susie in a special pit he constructed in a cornfield.
With Susie stuck in "Limbo," she works to make a connection with her family to help lead them to the truth behind her death, which takes several years. Eventually, Susie's younger sister Lindsay (Rose McIver) gets the creeps and begins to investigate Mr. Harvey at great peril, since he begins to plot her death as well.
By the end of the movie, Susie must choose whether to stay behind to take care of all her unfinished business, or travel on to the next level. Her family must decide if Susie's death will tear them completely apart, or if they will be able to move past such horror.
As for Mr. Harvey's fate, suffice to say that justice is in the eye of the beholder, and I'll leave it at that, in case you haven't read the book already.
Peter Jackson's involvement in
The Lovely Bones is strange, to say the least, but it's not a bad film, even though it's a far cry from
The Lord of the Rings or
King Kong, for that matter. It would seem as though the gifted director is trying new things; deeper things beyond your garden variety epic.
Most of the actors in
The Lovely Bones provide sufficient performances, but Sarandon stands out as the hard drinking, pill-popping aging party girl thrown out of her element into the family's only source of stability. Another standout is Tucci as the twisted child sex predator, delivering one of the most creepy villains of all time. I hope his name comes up when Best Supporting Actor nominations come out.
Even with some great performance,
The Lovely Bones isn't a great film, nor will it draw huge audiences. One problem is it's split personalities. It's a family drama at one point and a murder mystery the next, or a fantasy/spiritual film a little later.
Where
The Lovely Bones really misses is where it should be going for the emotional home run, instead of the existential bunt. It would seem Jackson is trying to be to deep with complex depictions of the spirit world when it should have been focusing more on the delicate and sometimes beautiful family bonds that reach beyond death.
