The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold wrote a gripping, affecting novel about a young girl whose life is ended far too soon by a man with a devastating and interminable itch: he rapes and murders young girls. Peter Jackson, whose extensive resume includes the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, is an adept director, a man with visions of legendary proportions, a film artist who pulls out all the stops. This is why it’s so difficult to fathom how and why The Lovely Bones is such a poor, disappointing film.

A young girl, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan),”like the fish,” is on her way home from school when George Harvey (Stanley Tucci) cunningly intercepts her and proceeds to both rape and murder her. Her parents, Abigal and Jack (played respectively by Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg), begin the grueling process of both looking for her and grieving her loss. Susie, meanwhile, is discovering her own new place in the world. Or, rather, in another world altogether: the place in between heaven and earth. Jack and Abigail deal with her death very differently; Abigail eventually leaves the family, while Jack tirelessly searches out her killer. The emotional trauma devastates the family, which would be entirely dismal if it weren’t for the comic relief of Abigail’s mother (Susan Sarandon).

Jackson attempts to tell the story by creating different worlds for each of the major players. A worthy goal that is very poorly executed. The world of Jack is by far the most well told, as we are thrust into the world of a father whose undying love (played actually quite well by Wahlberg) won’t let his daughter’s memory go gently away into that good night. The mother’s story is essentially given the montage treatment, and, concomitantly, she is all but forgotten. Harvey’s story is fashioned fairly well, but it has the distinct feel of a low-budget crime scene reenactment at times, devolving, for a second here and there, into an almost comical presentation of the wretched and plagued man that he is. However, that being said, the rape scene is actually very well done, tasteful and minimalistic.

Lastly, the heaven (or the “in-between place”) scenes are horrendous. One would expect nothing but the most incredible, dazzling CG and special effects from the director of the Lord of the Rings films, but these scenes are nothing but laughable. We want to care strongly for Susie, as she deals with the constant thought of her family, of their attempt to come to grips with her loss in their personal ways, and of her own journey to the other side. Unfortunately, we cannot. Some of the special effects seem to come straight out of an earlier era, reminiscent of a time when we forgave much of what we saw in terms of verisimilitude, because we knew that they were trying their hardest, and the technology just wasn’t quite there yet. In all honesty, the computer graphics from Ghostbusters looks better than this film. At times, much better.

Fortunately, the acting is pretty good all across the board; Tucci, in particular, is extremely good. He seems like any man we might meet next door, though he’s struggling with a wretched urge. Ronan is actually pretty good despite the absurd green screen treatment. And Sarandon is quite possibly one of the film’s better halves (if you will) – in fact, if it weren’t for the acting, this film would be utterly abysmal. All in all, the writing isn’t horrible, but it’s overshadowed so strongly by the poor directing and graphics choices that it’s barely noticeable (surprising when you consider that Fran Walsh and Jackson worked together on all three Lord of the Rings).

Ultimately, this is yet another poignant, moving story poorly told. The tragic reality of the story, of course, is that this happens all the time – girls are abducted and abused, sometimes never to be seen again by their families or the light of day, and the lives of all involved are forever altered. This comes through despite the film’s gross incompetence (a testament to Sebold, in my opinion). In the end, this film is, sadly, not worth watching. There are some very suspenseful moments and a few touching scenes, but, overall, this film fails in so many ways that it becomes an effort not to walk out of the theatre, get your money back, walk to the nearest book store, and buy the novel, in an effort to hear the story told well. Save your time and money. Or, rather, spend it on the book.

Rating: 2/4 Stars