Peter Jackson returns to the more intimate dramatics of the excellent Heavenly Creatures with this adaptation of Alice Sebold’s heavenly bestseller. But where he easily managed to condense the scope of the Lord of the Rings novels, and then got carried away with his feverish love of King Kong resulting in too much excess baggage, here the effect is the opposite. His screenplay with regular contributors Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens has much of the structure of the source novel, but none of the meat.
For the handful of people that haven’t read the divine drama of the book, The Lovely Bones is the heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by the ultimate tragedy. Susie Salmon (the Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan) was a popular schoolgirl on the cusp of adulthood: she had a loving family – dad (Mark Wahlberg), mum (Rachel Weisz), sister Lindsey, and brother Buckley – and a would-be suitor. She will never see them again. Because Susie was murdered on the way home from school and now watches her family from above, torn between the desire to help them catch her killer, but at the same time knowing that they must heal and she must move on.
For the first 30 minutes this is superb stuff, with Jackson and co. quickly establishing a brilliant family dynamic that is clearly important if the impending horror is to carry the necessary weight. The shattering knowledge of Susie’s fate means that innocuous exchanges and familial goodbyes are also depressingly effective, and for those unaware of the narrative’s big twist it makes that event all the more shocking.
Unsurprisingly it’s the murder scene that will generate the most discussion. It’s shot tastefully enough so that it’s not too graphic, but with enough uncomfortable suggestiveness to shock the viewer. Jackson edits it by flitting between the underground lair of the killer and Susie’s family at the dinner table, unaware that their world is about to be torn apart. It’s these quick extreme changes of emotion that mark the most effective dramatic point in The Lovely Bones, but unfortunately it’s downhill from here.
What follows is a rushed, often patchy fantastical thriller that never carries the dramatic weight it ought to. This is the fault of too much ambition on the director’s part as the story turns into a visceral montage that moves at such a pace the actors and story are left behind.
The threads that suffer the most from the book involve Susie’s father’s grieving process, here compressed into a couple of scenes that require Wahlberg to frown and smash a few things. It’s as if you are obliged to use the text as a compendium to fill in the blanks for the character motivations.
Weisz is also completely wasted. On the receiving end of an abridged screenplay she is simply required for emotional exposition.
The less said about Sarandon’s grandmother, the better.
The plaudits will rightly be reserved for Stanley Tucci’s twitchily impulsive bogeyman. Unsettling with his ability to hide in plain sight and seemingly get away with murder, it’s a proper “boo hiss” role that’s genuinely creepy.
Similarly Saoirse Ronan does a wonderful job as the tragic teenager, and although she vanishes from the screen for large chunks of the film, it’s a mature performance in a role that required it.
Jackson does leave his imprint on the film; there is a disturbingly beautiful bathroom sequence that hints at his gore splattered roots; and the “heaven” sequences are constantly evolving with increasingly impressive imagination.
What promised to be the perfect melding of director and material for a long time only infrequently delivers, but it’s such high expectations as these that result in disappointment when a film is simply good rather than great.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
For the handful of people that haven’t read the divine drama of the book, The Lovely Bones is the heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by the ultimate tragedy. Susie Salmon (the Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan) was a popular schoolgirl on the cusp of adulthood: she had a loving family – dad (Mark Wahlberg), mum (Rachel Weisz), sister Lindsey, and brother Buckley – and a would-be suitor. She will never see them again. Because Susie was murdered on the way home from school and now watches her family from above, torn between the desire to help them catch her killer, but at the same time knowing that they must heal and she must move on.
For the first 30 minutes this is superb stuff, with Jackson and co. quickly establishing a brilliant family dynamic that is clearly important if the impending horror is to carry the necessary weight. The shattering knowledge of Susie’s fate means that innocuous exchanges and familial goodbyes are also depressingly effective, and for those unaware of the narrative’s big twist it makes that event all the more shocking.
Unsurprisingly it’s the murder scene that will generate the most discussion. It’s shot tastefully enough so that it’s not too graphic, but with enough uncomfortable suggestiveness to shock the viewer. Jackson edits it by flitting between the underground lair of the killer and Susie’s family at the dinner table, unaware that their world is about to be torn apart. It’s these quick extreme changes of emotion that mark the most effective dramatic point in The Lovely Bones, but unfortunately it’s downhill from here.
What follows is a rushed, often patchy fantastical thriller that never carries the dramatic weight it ought to. This is the fault of too much ambition on the director’s part as the story turns into a visceral montage that moves at such a pace the actors and story are left behind.
The threads that suffer the most from the book involve Susie’s father’s grieving process, here compressed into a couple of scenes that require Wahlberg to frown and smash a few things. It’s as if you are obliged to use the text as a compendium to fill in the blanks for the character motivations.
Weisz is also completely wasted. On the receiving end of an abridged screenplay she is simply required for emotional exposition.
The less said about Sarandon’s grandmother, the better.
The plaudits will rightly be reserved for Stanley Tucci’s twitchily impulsive bogeyman. Unsettling with his ability to hide in plain sight and seemingly get away with murder, it’s a proper “boo hiss” role that’s genuinely creepy.
Similarly Saoirse Ronan does a wonderful job as the tragic teenager, and although she vanishes from the screen for large chunks of the film, it’s a mature performance in a role that required it.
Jackson does leave his imprint on the film; there is a disturbingly beautiful bathroom sequence that hints at his gore splattered roots; and the “heaven” sequences are constantly evolving with increasingly impressive imagination.
What promised to be the perfect melding of director and material for a long time only infrequently delivers, but it’s such high expectations as these that result in disappointment when a film is simply good rather than great.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
