My thoughts are very conflicted with Peter Jackson’s (The Lord of the Rings) new movie THE LOVELY BONES. I love everything about the movie except for some key elements of the story. The film had my full attention all the way leading to the murder of the main character. After that THE LOVELY BONES started to loose steam fast. It started to become something like WHAT DREAMS MAY COME but way more entertaining. This may just be some nitpicking because the movie is indeed well made but I just got tired of the story and some of the acting. The main characters voice over throughout the movie started to get on my nerves with her wispy sounding voice. The film’s version of Heaven or I should say The In-Between got to be a little too “Lovely” for me. Susan Sarandon bugged me too. Like I said, nitpicking.
Don’t worry I didn’t ruin the movie telling you that the main character gets murdered because THE LOVELY BONES is about a young woman who gets murdered on her way home from school. Based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones is the story of a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor. She tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body.
I felt the message of the movie was more about moving on in life, in the real world and the afterlife but less about finding the killer. It’s a good story only it’s one that I started to care less and less about. The good things are many with good direction by Peter Jackson, great cinematography (the 70’s are recreated masterfully), and an above and beyond performance from Stanley Tucci as the killer neighbor George Harvey. I think a lot of people that see this movie will not believe the range that Mr. Tucci has as an actor especially with previous roles in movies like THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and JULIE & JULIA.
My final thoughts on THE LOVELY BONES is that while I did not like the story as much as I wanted to (and I really tried), the end product is still a good movie and Peter Jackson is still a great filmmaker.
