The Lovely Bones

Peter Jackson's latest film The Lovely Bones is an adaptation of a novel from Alice Sebold. It tells the tale of Susie Salmon a 14yr old girl living in 1970's smalltown America who is trapped and murdered. We then follow both Susie in her experience of the afterlife and her family as they deal with the grief of her death.

The film is solidly made and features some great moments but considering the subject matter it doesn't quite hit the heart as you would expect it to.

Susie's vision of the space between life and heaven as she watches over her family is well realised overall with some nice touches as two worlds over run such as the bottle ships clashing against the cliffs as her dad directs his rage at a lifetime of lovingly crafted models.

There are some darker moments that are quite sinister in there too as Susie confronts the memory of what happened to her. However it also has to be said in places things become a little over egged. Such as the Gladiator invoking fields of golden corn and swirling orchestration.

As for the cast Susan Sarandon is wasted as Susie's grandmother with only really awkwardly including chucks of comedy to work with. Rachel Weiz as the mother basically as nothing to do and is rather unceremoniously sidelined pretty quickly. Mark Whalberg does well as the grieving father looking to find justice for his daughter, but he just doesn't quite make you really feel it.

Saoirse Ronan as Susie is very much responsible for the heart of the film, providing a voice over throughout the film. She is solid but again like Whalberg doesn't quite really push the roll home, which is shame as she dhows promise but just doesn't quite bring home here.

Stanley Tucci as Susie's killer gives the stand out performance bringing to life a creepy and uptight killer next door. He truly makes you feel a little uncomfortable whenever he is around.

Jackson himself stages the film well with a couple of craftily presented sequences (killer and cop follow each other looking round a doll's house and the heavy thud of a safe echoes against Susie's final steps to heaven) but again it feels like he's missed the real heart of the story as we really don't spend enough time with Susie's family to get a feel for their grief and the passage time although cleverly signposted never really feels fluid as we skip through the months.

So overall it's one of those films that comes close to being a very good one but just misses the target, falling short and becoming one that is laudable for it's ambition but sadly ends up an average one.