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Focuses on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
Saoirse Ronan: Susie Salmon
Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's story The Lovely Bones is another showcase for his talents of merging together great storytelling with magical special effects. The film is a complete blend of the real and the fantastical similarly styled to his film adapt of the real life inspired Heavenly Creatures. The mixed reviews and wallowing box office is probably due to the depressing underlying themes and also because this is a film adaptation of the book; There is certainly alot missing in the film from the source material.
However, why did I still love The Lovely Bones? Well first of all it's seemingly dark subject matter involving a murder is actually a story about coping with death, spirituality, a belief in the afterlife, karma, and redemption.
Saoirse Ronan follows through on the great potential she showed in her Academy Award-nominated performance in Atonement; She absolutely bombards the screen in The Lovely Bones with a rainbow of emotion and I cannot imagine this film being made without her ethereal beauty and soulful melody. Stanley Tucci is restrained, nearly unrecognisable, and ruthlessly effective as Mr. Harvey the serial killer. His performance is commendable and his Oscar nod shows appreciation for a dark, twisted effort which lingers.
The photography by Andrew Lesnie breathtaking in scope and in terms of cinematography. The lighting and angles used are gorgeous throughout the film.
''You're the Salmon girl, right?''
It should also be said that The Lovely Bones shows Peter Jackson can edit his films superbly so they run smoothly.
Jackson films close up shots with a realistic magnified beauty to them. The part where Mr Harvey is chasing the Susie's sister is majestically tense while clever shots are used and shaky close ups of face to emphasis fear.
Even the parts where Mr Harvey toys with a tiny house from a bracelet is wonderfully captured in a uniquely filmed way.
It must also be said that Mark Wahlberg collecting photographs Peter Jackson cameos as a random bystander testing a filmic camera. Little touches of these made me feel nostalgia reminiscent of a Hitchcock piece.
Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz turn out good performances yet nothing memorable or overly powerful.
Susan Sarandon's perpetually drunk grandmother's entry into the story is a flawed change in tone, but it is a plot necessity considering that the Salmon children's mother moves out and their father later is beaten near to death...the beating of Susie's father may seem a far-fetched plot twist but I think it is clearly meant to be a lesson in not taking an eye for an eye, instead letting fate settle the matter...instead of Mr. Harvey predictably being caught as he rolls the safe containing Susie into the sink hole, Peter Jackson sticks roughly to the books core. This isn't about revenge or someone unrealistically striking vengeance upon Mr Harvey. This is real life. His own personal clock serves as the judge, jury and executioner for his misdeeds and murders.
In conclusion, The Lovely Bones is a film that is amazing yet irritatingly misses important aspects of the book at times. Especially the later half of the film; Peter seems to race through the material forgetting the book's lengthy detailed meanderings.
On the whole I do feel that it is a haunting cinematic cerebral awakening told from the eyes and perspective of a teenage girl whom only wanted to experience her first kiss, her first love before being tragically murdered and further proof that Peter Jackson is one of the most visionary film-makers working today.
''You are beautiful, Susie Salmon.''
8/10
