The Lovely Bones (2009)

Peter Jackson truly is an epic filmmaker. Be it a fantasy, drama, or even zombie film, he sees it on a grand scale. With every film, you can see that Peter Jackson has to make these three-hour films because he is just about to explode with talent. And the biggest problem with The Lovely Bones is that it is not an epic film. It is not an epic script, it is not an epic story, and I don’t even think it counts as an epic book. I cannot be a decent judge of that last one, due to the fact that I have not read the book and it is decently low on my list (currently I am reading the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country for Old Men, and it is very good), but, in short, this was never a film for Peter Jackson to direct. The first thirty minutes of this film are nearly perfect. And then we get to the scenes after that which just plain and simple, do not work a bit. The plotline of the film concerns 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), who is murdered (in the book, there’s a bit more that I do not care to talk about here) by a man by the name of Harvey (an absolutely amazing performance by Stanley Tucci) in 1973. While in her own personal purgatory, awaiting to be taken to heaven, she decides to help her father (Mark Wahlberg) and mother (Rachel Weisz) find the man, and put him to justice before he ends up killing his next victim, who he plans to be Suzie’s younger sister. The first thirty minutes that I was talking about was the tragic lead-in to Suzie’s murder, you know it was coming, but you find such a soul and heart in this aspiring photographer that you hate seeing her go. And then she does. And that is where the movie begins to falter. Peter Jackson then tried to make this an epic film, and not a small drama like it was meant to be. He has these epic scenes of special effects magic-land, where everything is happy fun-time. And that is what I hate about this film. It toys with your emotions, but not in an artistic way. You have this brilliant tragic opening, and then try to pass it along as happy. The movie works when it is dealing with serious drama. When it is on earth, and we see the evil in Stanley Tucci, and the desperation and deterioration of Mark Wahlberg, we have a very effective drama. But whenever Peter Jackson is trying to make another King Kong, we have nothing but mindless trash. There is a lot about The Lovely Bones that works. But there is also a good bit that does not. It doesn’t even hold a candle to The Lord of the Rings and King Kong, but it definitely isn’t terrible.
6.5/10