The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009): USA/New Zealand

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at Camino Real Cinema.

  The Lovely Bones is the hope that grows from the tragic events of one American family.

Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is an average teenage girl, growing up in the early 70’s, who dreams of a career and of her first kiss.  For her birthday she receives a new 110 Instamatic camera with a box full of film.  Susie sets about aimlessly shooting pictures of everything around her, running through the entire box of film, and fantasizing about a career as a photographer.

Susie’s dreams never materialize, since she is soon stalked, raped, and brutally killed by her neighbor George Harvey (Stanley Tucci).  Suddenly Susie finds herself in a spiritual limbo – or purgatory as it were, where she witnesses the slow unraveling of her family’s lives, and also the activities of her former killer – who is preparing for his next victim.

Jack Salmon (Mark Wahlberg) is Susie’s dad, and he is committed to finding her killer, even at the collapse of his marriage to Abigail (Rachel Weisz).  Abigail’s glamourous mother, grandma Lynn (Susan Sarandon), soon steps in to lend a hand and some unwelcome advice – which is mainly to ” accept the facts and move on.”

The Salmon family have every imaginable conflict come their way, and wait ’til you see what becomes of grandma!  Somehow they survive, and this is what the film is about.  It is about forgiveness, acceptance, personal choices and mis-directed anger.  The horror is merely the sub-text of the story, with the primary theme being moving forward and moving on.

The cast is solid, with Stanley Tucci in a stand-out performance, as the serial killer with a calm, methodical demeanor.  Susan Sarandon, who never seems to disappoint us, holds her own, as the shallow but loving grandma Lynn, with hidden inner strength.

There are some questionable moments, such as when the family sits down to dinner without Susie.  They discuss the absence of their fourteen year old casually enough to get through dinner, yet immediately after Jack is suddenly panic stricken, to the point of over-reacting. 

 There is a bit of a “McGuffin” within the plot concerning a certain photograph, when towards the end it builds   up suspense, but falls a little flat, leaving one feeling a bit cheated.

Other than that, Susie’s celestial journey is quite inspiring and also visually stunning.  Overall a beautiful and uplifting film, and conversely a suspense driven highly-charged thriller.

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Published:
01.24.10 / 6pm
Category:
Films