Day 13: May 13th, 2010

The Lovely Bones



It's Not The Mess People Say It Is


Susie Salmon was 14 when she was raped and murdered. Instead of going to heaven, she is in the in-between. She is there to watch over her family through the grieving process and to somehow bring her killer to justice.

Let me say right off the bat that I have not read the book, but I understand that a lot of the hate towards this film is the fact that Peter Jackson didn't get the emotion right and he left the important stuff out to focus on the magical world that is the in-between. While I can't attest to this, I can sort of see their point, even without reading the novel. The story is easy to follow, but near the end becomes a bit cloudy with it's purpose and message. The film is far from perfect, but it is not the mess that people say it is.

Jackson loves his CGI and he uses it beautifully here, but it does seem to be overbearing. A lot of the in-between scenes are nice to look at, but they don't hold any emotional resonance with the viewer. We get that it's a wonderful place where you can do what you want, but we are shown this too many times. It took away from the more interesting story that was the family.

Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz are the parents of Susie, normally I find Wahlberg to be too monotone and passive in his voice. I did not think he was going to be able to pull off the emotional requirements for this character. He didn't knock it out of the park, but he did surprise me. Weisz is the mother who cannot go on living in the house. Her husband is obsessed with the case and finding the murderer, her mother is an alcoholic and she needs room to come to terms with her daughter's death. The film doesn't explore the emotional weight enough for these two characters. We see they are upset, obviously, their daughter is dead, but I wanted them to dive deeper into their characters. It unfortunately wasn't the case here.

The film itself isn't sure what it wants to be, is it fantasy, is it a film about solving a murder case? It mixes both and yet doesn't feel like either. The obsession of the father is just one quick scene and we are to believe that he comes to a realization of certain events based on, I'm assuming, Susie willing him to. Far-fetched, but believable in some small ways. Stanley Tucci is the killer, this is no spoiler as it is all over the trailers. He is haunting in this role, his blue eyes are cold and steel like. His kind and warm hearted demeanor only adds to his tormented cruelty. Both Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci were excellent in their roles. Don't forget about Saoirse Ronan, after all if we don't like her why do we care? She was excellent and made the film better by her innocent and young portrayal of the victim.

There are certainly some suspenseful scenes, Jackson knows how to get an audience to hang on to the edge of their seats. Jackson uses his camera in unique ways to give and uneasy feeling at times. The shots looking through the doll house are great, as are the extreme close ups of random objects thrown on dutch angles.

The Lovely Bones isn't without it's problems. The film concludes with mixed messages and a lot of questions. Did she stay to see her killer brought to justice, or to kiss the guy? Does that girl live in that shack near the sink hole? Why did the film have random transformation possession scenes. None of it is really explained. She ends with film with some narration about the connections made in her death, yet I failed to see any.

In the end I did enjoy it though, it is shot beautifully and I was engaged in the story. The film is receiving a lot of heck, so I'll be in the minority and recommend it.

6.5/10