Review: The Lovely Bones

Grade: D-

The Lovely Bones tells a story about a young girl, Suzie Salmon, who is murdered on her way home from school on December 7th 1973 by one of her families neighbors. She narrates the story from a place referred to as "the in-between", a place that is not quite heaven and not quite earth. She watches as her family tries to solve her murder and she watches her murderer as he plans his next possible victim and she learns a more about her murderer. She watches as her murder tears her family apart and see's how her death affects everybody around her.

This movie was just not good. When I first heard about the story and this movie it sounded intriguing. Well, it totally did not live up to anything. I did not read the book but if it is anything at all like this movie, I won't like it. The story was just weird and kind of stupid at times. The "love story" aspect was utterly insane and ridiculous. She basically worships this guy from afar, they have one conversation (just before she is murdered) were he essentially proclaims his love for her, then long after her death he is still in love with her, drove me insane. It will take too long to explain but there were so many aspect of this story and so many things that happened that were just ludicrous and kept bringing this down more and more, like her sister almost not showing her parents or anybody the solid evidence she found that proves Mr. Harvey killed Suzie because her mom came home. Also, this movie had the worst ending since the theatrical ending to I Am Legend. There is no justice and so many stupid things happen that I about screamed.

I will say, however, that Peter Jackson did a great job with the visuals of the movie. All the sequences that take place in the "in-between" are really beautiful and fun to look at. He also really nailed the 70's aspect of this movie.

Relative new comer Saoirse Ronan plays the main character, Suzie Salmon. Ronan did a decent job with this role, some of the narration got pretty annoying at times. Mark Wahlburg (The Departed, The Italian Job) played Jack Salmon, Suzie's dad. He did a pretty good job with this role, especially with the parts where his character becomes obsessed with finding his daughter's murderer. Stanley Tucci (Julie and Julia, The Terminal) plays the role of George Harvey, Suzie's murderer. Tucci was one of the only good parts of this movie, he played creepy and disturbing so well that it's kind of unnerving. Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom, The Fountain) plays Abigail Salmon, Suzie's mom. I don't get why they got such an amazing actress to play such a small and kind of insignificant role, she's hardly in it and her character is actually gone for half of the movie. Susan Sarandon (Speed Racer, Enchanted) plays the comic relief character of Grandma Lynn, she was ok.

If you really want to see this movie I suggest saving some money and waiting for DVD. It was weird and very drawn out, I feel it could easily be about a half hour shorter. In the meantime if you want to watch some good movies along these line I recommend watching The Invisible, about a boy stuck in limbo watching people as he waits for his body to be discovered, really good. Also, if you want to see a movie with some proper justice, I recommend Taken, starring Liam Neeson, or, even though I haven't seen it, Edge of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson.

Good quote: "My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. I took his photo once; he stepped out of nowhere and ruined the shot. He ruined a lot of things."