Heart Wrenching Story of a Family Dealing with the Murder of a Teenage Daughter

The Lovely Bones is based on the highly popular book written by Alice Sebold about a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered by a neighborhood single guy. In this fantasy/horror story, Susie Salmon, played by the talented Saoirse Ronan, is transfixed somewhere between Heaven & Earth as she watches over her family from afar.

My job as a film reviewer is to critique the film on its own merits with disregard to the book. In this case, the film could have easily been written as a horror screenplay by Stephen King. King mixes fantasy and normal everyday life into his novels, the same way ‘Bones’ has done. This film is a horror film and Stanley Tucci as the predator is terrifying! He not only commits the hideous crime in the first 15 minutes of the film; but we also find out that he’s a serial killer and has a long history of raping and murdering innocent children. Wonderful? ...not my cup of tea!

Susie narrates the story as she looks down upon her grieving family from wherever she is, filling us in on the story-line. She tells us that in 1973 there were no missing kids photos on milk cartons and that missing kids were much harder to find in those days. She also tells us that her murderer was her next door neighbor and that after 11 months, there were still no suspects found in her case. Susie’s parents are played by Mark Wahlberg and Rachael Weisz. They go through a range of emotions which are tough to watch. Her sister Lindsey, played by Rose McIver, also has trouble dealing with the murder and starts investigating on her own. We are terrified when she actually goes into the basement of the murderer alone searching for clues.

Much of the film is in fantasy land CGI in which director Peter Jackson illustrates his view of the afterlife: lots of clouds, wheat fields and calm seas. Susie also meets the other little girls who were murdered and they run together holding hands as if they’ve joined a new club. These scenes were very strange and paint a sad portrait of the afterlife. I was not amused and found them disturbing.

Too much fantasy and not enough reality in my opinion. A teenage girl is dead, period. Give us some hope or retribution. Instead, Susie continues her suffering from afar as she looks down helplessly upon her family and her killer who, by the way, is planning on killing again.  Too much of a downer for any form of entertainment or lesson to be learned. The only lesson here is: Parents, don’t let your 14-year-olds walk home from school alone or they might end up trapped in a home-made trench in a cornfield with a psycho serial killer.

Susan Sarandon plays the Grandma and she’s great as always. Her attempts to keep the grieving family together are admirable; however, the pain is almost unbearable as she gives comfort to her daughter and her son-in-law.  

Bottom line, this is a fantasy/horror film that could have been so much better given the talented cast. More reality and toning down the fantasy may have helped. Some novels simply can’t be made into films and I believe this is one of them. The novel is highly sensitive to the readers’ emotions and is beautifully written. I highly doubt the same elements could have been transferred to the screen to achieve the same effect.
One last comment: Stanley Tucci’s performance is ultra creepy!

Sarah Adamson  © January 2010