The Lovely Bones [2009]

Susie Salmon is murdered – and she watches from heaven as her family deals with it.

One thing I really dislike hearing about movies is about how the book is better than the movie – so let me bypass that statement – and let one assume that fact as I give my thoughts on The Lovely Bones.

The movie felt unfocused and confused. I found that it just lost steam towards the end – and the creativity and passion for telling an interesting story left the film. I found this to be a story problem – where everything felt like it took a long time to accomplish – even the beginning statements of how Susie Salmon was going to be murdered took about 40-minutes to actually happen. Unless they wanted to make a 3 hour film – then all the lofty ideas that were floated out there just were not going to be fully fleshed out.

The direction of this story seemed fine – but where the story begins to lack – that’s when the direction starts to fail. The acting all around was pretty solid – though with how disjointed the story became – I just didn’t feel that any character was really able to come into their own. It felt as though they kept saying “oh yeah – this happens – and this happens – and this happens” instead of really letting it unfold organically. The question then becomes – “who’s story is this?” – I thought the real story was about the family Susie left behind – and not her desire for “justice” – Susie should’ve just remained an observer rather than the driving force of the film.

By my definition – The Lovely Bones is a perfect example of a 3 out of 5 film – it failed at being all it could be – but it wasn’t a horrible way to waste my time. I must admit – the book is an interesting read – and as I consider it – it probably doesn’t work as a movie even if it was executed perfectly.

[directed by Peter Jackson]