Review: The Lovely Bones

In Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best seller, Susie Salmon is a 14-year girl is stuck in purgatory after her murder and must accept her death as her family tries to do the same and her father tries to find her killer. For those of you who were dead in the early part of this millenium, director Peter Jackson made a trilogy called The Lord of the Rings, and so I will forever see every movie he makes.

Now, this was the film that most would have bet on 10 months ago if they had to pick a 2010 Best Pic winner, but the film was juggled by Paramount and critical acclaim has been hard to come by. I don’t get that. This film was a perfect thriller with a wonderful emotional resonance and the beautiful filmmaking that PJ is known for. Even in the big emotional moment in the beginning of the film when she is murdered, I was captivated and on the edge of my seat.

Stanley Tucci plays the murderer and is horrifying and I saw an actor completely lose himself to the insanity of this character. Saoirse Ronan is magnificent as Susie as she searches through the in-between and watches what is happening on earth. Jackson magically intertwines these two worlds and the in-between is something that some people will really love and some I could see being completely put off by (clearly I loved it).

The film opens wide January 15 and I hope people ignore the critics on this one.

(I never read the book so I can’t say how good an adaptation it is.)

Grade: A or ★★★★½ (Out of 5)