Jeff Beck Reviews: The Lovely Bones
The team behind the brilliant “Lord of the Rings” brings us something completely different with their new project, “The Lovely Bones.” After “King Kong,” it was hoped that director Peter Jackson would return to more imaginative and engaging stories. Unfortunately, what Jackson achieves with “The Lovely Bones” is strike two.
The film starts in 1973 by introducing us to the Salmon family. There’s Jack (Mark Wahlberg), Abigail (Rachel Weisz), and their three kids, Susie (Saoirse Ronan), Lindsey (Rose McIver), and Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale). Susan’s life is going pretty well. Her grandmother (Susan Sarandon) predicts that her life will be long, especially after saving the life of her brother. But, as Susie points out, her grandmother is often wrong, like on this occasion.
On her way home one night, 14-year-old Susie is stopped by a neighbor, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), who wants to show her a clubhouse that he has built underground. Susie reluctantly agrees and goes down into the cellar-like construction. However, when she wants to leave, George will not allow it. As Susie had told us, this is the day that she was murdered.
This was a film I was really looking forward to, so imagine my disappointment when it turns out to be a mostly forgettable experience. Much of the film revolves around Susie being caught on a celestial plane somewhere between heaven and Earth. This is shown in the form of beautiful landscapes that rapidly change as Susie wanders about.
Then we quickly realize that the film is becoming bogged down with CGI special effects, at least where Susie is concerned. Some of these effects are neat such as giant bottled ships crashing upon a shore or the leaves of a tree taking off like birds, but the film seems so preoccupied with them, concentrating much more on them instead of the human element of the story.
As for Susie herself, she is not given much to do besides wander these landscapes, that is, until the end of the film, which is a whole new problem I’ll get to a bit later. She also narrates a lot while she wanders, telling us about her murderer, or about her father as he attempts to find him. Susie does at least get some other characters to interact with when she meets some of George’s other victims, most notably a girl named Holly (Nikki SooHoo).
From early on, there were some questions that stuck out from the film, such as, why did Susie go down into the hole with a man she hardly knew? or how did nobody notice that George was digging and building this contraption in a spot that could be seen from several houses surrounding it? It’s big questions like this that start to bog the film down as the audience is forced to ask themselves about things that aren’t adding up.
There was a mixture of interesting and unnecessary characters, the unnecessary one being the grandmother played by Susan Sarandon. After the tragedy of Susie’s murder, there is a completely inappropriate montage of her helping out around the home, making the film suddenly feel like a comedy. She ends up playing only one important function, and that’s not even until the end of the film.
The best performance of the bunch comes from Stanley Tucci as George Harvey. He gives a genuinely creepy performance as a man who has the bizarre compulsion to murder these women. He kind of stands out as a weirdo of the neighborhood, which makes it strange that Jack doesn’t suspect him immediately. However, George has probably had plenty of practice when it comes to having to change neighborhoods and blend into them.
The ending itself was a strange mixture of things. It’s as if the filmmakers couldn’t figure out how to end the story so they tried a little of everything in an attempt to wrap it up. More than one part of it turns out to be just silly. Not only that, but it feels incomplete. We’re never really sure what has happened and why. It also incorporates another character, Clarissa (Amanda Michalka), who feels forced into the film and is only there to serve as a medium for Susie.
Despite the ending being a mess, it’s still an interesting film to look at. However, it could have been much better had the filmmakers not been so dependent on the CGI and instead, focused much more on the characters. The main character in particular felt like she was left behind in the celestial world and forgotten by the filmmakers. The film is visually interesting, but far from “lovely.”
2.5/4 stars.
You can read this and other reviews in my column at The Richmond Examiner.
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