Release Date: 1/15/2010
Peter Jackson is almost single handedly responsible for creating the best trilogy of films ever created, with the exception of maybe The Godfather and Star Wars. But with The Godfather: Part III and the last three Star Wars films declining the overall reputation of both sagas, one could argue that The Lord of the Rings is the best trilogy ever made. That being said, I couldn’t have had higher hopes for Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best selling, and both highly acclaimed and highly adored novel The Lovely Bones. The story centers on Suzie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), a young fourteen year old girl who is murdered and is stuck in the “in-between” while weighing her own feelings of vengeance for her killer George Harvey (Stanley Tucci) against her parents Jack (Mark Wahlberg) and Abigail (Rachel Weisz) being able to move on with their lives, thus beginning the healing process. The Lovely Bones is nothing more than a gorgeously visual film filled with an overwhelming sense of frustration and disappointment from start to finish. The film fails to connect with any human emotion of any kind. In fact, the only thing that is more surprising than the films lack of heartfelt emotions what-so-ever, is Peter Jackson’s borderline obsession with CGI.
For the most part, the cast was a huge disappointment as well. Though, I think Mark Wahlberg’s performance as the grieving father is a bit misconstrued. I don’t necessarily think he was a miscast as it was the script leaving him out to dry. Listen, I really think Marky Mark is a solid actor, but sometimes you can only go as far as the script will allow you to. Rachel Weisz is a phenomenal actress and everyone knows it, but she struggled a bit here as the brokenhearted and inconsolable mother. Though she does give us a couple moments in the film that convey how great this movie could have been. Stanley Tucci somehow manages to give his character’s inching pedophiliac tendencies an ounce of humanity and solitude, not because his character was well written but because he’s a tremendous acting talent. He gives a heavy dose of neighborhood creepiness that will forever haunt the dreams of parents and children alike. Susan Sarandon is almost not even worth mentioning. She is barely able to make a splash in a movie that lacks any substantial waves.
There are some positives that come out of watching The Lovely Bones, to include the performances of Saoirse Ronan and The Soprano’s Michael Imperioli. Saoirse Ronan earned herself an Oscar nomination for her performance in Atonement back in 2007, at the age of just thirteen. As the stories centerpiece, she solidifies herself as a serious acting threat for years to come and rightfully so, she pretty much carries the film from fade in to fade out. Michael Imperioli produces something here that flirts with subtle greatness. As the investigating detective on the case, he has very few scenes but delivers a performance that I can only describe as real.
Fans of the book will undoubtedly end up seeing this movie anyway, if for nothing else loyalty, but sadly I think they will leave the theater feeling both deflated and disappointed. Some say that the worst thing you can say about a film like this is, “Yeah, but it looked really cool.” Because if that’s all you can muster out of a film that should have moved you than it’s an obvious misfire. The Lovely Bones is a lovely disappointment. We don’t get nearly as much out of the cast as we should have, the film is overdone with CGI dreamscapes and a filmmaker’s vision of heaven that I couldn’t possibly understand and the story’s ending is extremely flimsy at best. But hey, it looked really cool.
IMDb: 6.9/10
Rottentomatoes: 39%
MovieWiseGuys: 5.5/10
