Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg & Rachel Weisz
A decent but soft adaptation of the bestselling novel, The Lovely Bones is an entertaining but often too tame and saccharine a film to really impress given some of its subject matter.
Following the epic trilogy of his The Lord of the Rings adaptations and the almost epic, though less well received, King Kong remake, Peter Jackson’s decision to make his next film an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s popular novel took some by surprise. The Lovely Bones however, does bear some similarities in themes to one of Jackson’s earlier films, Heavenly Creatures, but with the added budget to now allow Jackson to visualise fantasy sequences more impressively. The resulting film however, while generally faithful in plot and tone to the novel, is slightly disappointing as, while visually impressive and featuring some good performances, it has softened many of the novel’s darker moments while enhancing some of its more over-sentimental elements.
In 1973, 14 year old Susie Salmon (Ronan), with all her hopes and dreams ahead of her, is murdered by her family’s neighbour George (Tucci), a secret sexual predator and killer. With her family devastated and her father Jack (Wahlberg) unwilling to give up on the search to find Susie and identify her killer, Susie finds herself watching over her family and friends, and her killer, from a world in between the land of the living and the heavens beyond. As she watches over them she sees the effect her loss has on their lives and must comes to terms with her fate whilst helping her loved ones come to terms with it too as Susie also comes to explore and understand the realm in which she is to spend her afterlife.
The Lovely Bones is a likeable film. Given that the plot revolves around a young girl’s murder and her loved ones’ attempts to cope with the loss and, in some cases, find retribution, the film is increasingly sweet and over sentimental as it continuously reminds and reinforces the belief that Susie and her family were good people and that their love for one another was so great. While these elements were present in the novel and certainly succeed at making Susie and her family, her father Jack especially, sympathetic characters, it also threatens to overwhelm the story on occasion and undermine the darker, more serious elements of the film surrounding Susie’s killer, his behaviours and his future. Toning down the violence of the novel (Susie is not only murdered but also raped in the novel) may make the film more appealing to a wider audience but it also seems to make the film less satisfying when the film is allowed to stray into far more over-sentimental territory. What is more interesting is Jackson’s visualisation of Susie’s afterlife. Often depicted as vibrant, fantastical though rooted in natural wonder, the realm that Susie inhabits is frequently beautiful to behold (though conjures up similarities to the Robin Williams’ film What Dreams May Come) but are more impressive when they intrude upon the real world during the film’s more darker scenes such as Susie coming upon her killer bathing after her murder and scenes within the cornfields.
Performances in The Lovely Bones are generally good. Saoirse Ronan is very likeable as Susie Salmon, if perhaps a little too lacking in flaws to be wholly believable, though Ronan’s performance contrast well with her previous role in Atonement that the difference is notable. Mark Wahlberg is believably earnest and tortured in his role as Susie’s father who won’t accept the loss of his daughter though Rachel Weisz as Susie’s mother is less well served by the film’s script with Weisz often reduced to grieving silently. Very impressive however is Stanley Tucci as George, Susie’s neighbour and killer. Tucci oozes what Suzie refers to in the film as the “Heebie Jeebies” very effectively with his performance giving George a very creepy demeanour and sense of danger while also conveying an image of harmlessness to fool others.
Overall, The Lovely Bones is a decent film, it features some good performances and is often visually impressive but the reliance of over-sentimentality and the softening of the novel’s darker elements means the film is not as satisfying as it could have been and is often too sweet for its own good.
Rating: 3/5
