The Lovely Bones (2009)
I enjoyed "The Lovely Bones" enormously, if it's possible to enjoy a movie with such a dark subject matter. As a story it's moving, upsetting, affecting, involving, tense, engrossing and extraordinarily good to look at. Peter Jackson has once again proved that he is not restricted to one genre and can adapt and evolve into a fantastic director. Peter Jackson took the novel's main themes and tied them together using the CGI – ravelling and unravelling them in accordance with the characters' lives. Susie's heaven is not meant to be of this world. It is meant to be her own world, at the same time nowhere and everywhere at once, made up of her own feelings, thoughts and desires. I loved Jackson's use of CGI to depict this, because its use in itself is symbolic; Susie's world is something of the imagination but at the same time real, the place in-between, and Jackson's use of CGI is not to flamboyantly embellish the details of the story but to simply depict this, and to directly contrast the scenes of Susie's family, which are at once grounded and emotionally raw, real and cathartic. The performances from all are straight from the top drawer, and support Jackson's visuals at every turn. Top honours go to Walhberg as Susie's suffering father, Susan Sarandon, and of course Ronan as Susie herself. She is another example of a talented, non-pretentious, feet-on-earth, child actor, that is slowly growing and maturing into a future great actor. Stanley Tucci does a tremendous job with what has to be a horrendous, unsympathetic, ugly and hateful character. The score by Brian Eno is wonderful, and noticeable without being overbearing. On its own two feet, "The Lovely Bones" is solid, touching, and far more emotionally and morally ambiguous and sophisticated than some people claim. The film does what it sets out to do and does it beautifully!
- My Rating: 8.50/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 36% (5.1/10)
- IMDb: 6.8/10
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