The Lovely Bones is not only a terrible adaptation of a very good book, but more importantly it’s an emotionally hollow mess of a film. This is quite possibly Peter Jackson’s weakest film to date and it defines disappointment. The wonderful ensemble is wasted, it lacks an emotional punch, the effects are lackluster at best and the script lacks any sense of coherence. This isn’t a particularly “bad” film. It has a few bright spots scattered throughout, but it’s still ultimately an underwhelming and frustrating experience.
Susie Salmon (Saorise Ronan) is your ordinary fourteen year old. She’s full of life, energetic and also happens to have a nice little family. All this is taken away from her one day by her mysterious neighbor George Harvey (Stanely Tucci). Her death leads to the tearing apart of her family and even effects people she barely knew. Now she’s stuck in the in-between world which is where she’ll be able to watch her family while living in a world that shows her feelings and emotions. To leave this world she must let go of the past, but unsurprisingly she can’t. She can’t stop watching her heartbroken father Jack Salmon (Mark Wahlberg), her desperate mother Abigal Salmon (Rachel Wesiz), a boy she loved but barely knew and even her killer.
As stated previously, this is a frustratingly an incoherent mess. Every plot point is rushed through and feels half baked. This is an ensemble film and yet during the running time of over two hours it’s nearly impossible to feel any sort of attachment to these characters. It’s difficult to care for Susie since she isn’t nearly as interesting as Jack Salmon, Abigal Salmon and unsurprisingly George Harvey. The main issue with all her scenes is that they’re ham-fisted to the furthest extent possible. Her narration is the polar opposite of subtlety and the same applies to the in-between world. The in-between world obviously conveys her emotions and that even applies to the smaller details of her world. It’s cringe inducing at times about how silly those sequences truly are. The whole film meanders and feels choppy. It’s not necessary to focus on Susie’s first crush or a girl she never knew; especially when they’re one dimensional — like nearly every other character.
Heavy handed is another easy way to describe the script. Every emotion a character feels is spelled out in the blandest way possible. The same goes for the core themes of the film. The ending’s message is nothing short of on-the-nose: how even out of tragedy hopefulness can still prevail. There’s nearly no debate over this or about any of the film’s messages since every aspect is so utterly pandering. While it’s nearly asinine to judge a film by comparing it to the source material, which this review will not do, it’s completely baffling the aspects Jackson chooses to use and not use. Instead of having Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli) be an actual developed and heartbreaking character, he instead decided to craft him as simply another one dimensional cop character we’ve seen before. Similar to Fenerman, Grandma Lynn (Susan Sarandon) also happens to be an unnecessary one note character who only works at being comedic relief.
The only actor that succeeds from being held back by the script is Stanely Tucci who is genuinely excellent as George Harvey. Harvey is the only character that one can understand without having every detail of his persona and mindset spelled out. He’s simply a monster. He can’t help it. There’s subtle hints that he’s trying to fight this urge to kill and Tucci truly shines during those moments. Unfortunately, the final moment with Harvey is laughably bad. [Spoiler Alert] His death is executed in the most over-the-top fashion possible and earns quite a few laughs. [Spoiler Over] That scene in particular feels as if Jackson is playing to the lowest common denominator since it’s such an overused and silly resolution that’s there purely for audience satisfaction. As for the rest of the cast, everyone is wasted. It all comes down to the script which is completely problematic. Weisz is unsurprisingly watchable and actually quite good, Sarandon is charismatic enough to not come off annoying and Ronan is simply adequate. While some have been unrelentingly bashing Walhberg, he’s fine. His performance is hit and miss, but the blame for that deserves to be completely directed towards Jackson.
Jackson shot this digitally and it shows. At times, there is distractingly bad motion blur that looks as if it was shot on a home video camera. At other times, it looks beautifully crisp. There’s a few sequences that are unquestionably brilliantly executed with some rather striking imagery. Those moments mostly arise when Jackson shoots the film as if it was a horror film. These moments come into play earlier on and they’re perfectly framed and horrifying moments. Unfortunately, Jackson clumsily handles the ludicrous in-between world moments like the rest of the film. There’s a handful of CG shots that come off as monumentally cartoonish. Jackson obviously isn’t going for realism and is striving for a surreal tone, but these moments ultimately come off as actors in front of a green-screen. It’s difficult not to admire Jackson for the film’s greater ambitions, but he’s to blame for nearly every single problem present.
While this review mostly comes off as negative, there’s still a few bright spots that breathe greatness. Brian Eno’s score is wonderfully chilling, Tucci deserves the acclaim for his performance as George Harvey and there’s still a level of ambition that deserves a slight amount of admiration. Unfortunately, all those wonderful moments never make for a cohesive and emotionally involving tale of death, grieving and love.