THE LOVELY BONES (2009)
I am very pleased with this film. Oh Hollywood--your products are so slick, accomplished, commercial, and impersonal. Yet here is a gorgeous movie full of production value which is very personal indeed. THE LOVELY BONES is a film by Peter Jackson. The setting is 1973 surburban Pennslyvania, although it was filmed principally in New Zealand. The basis is a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold, which I read and did not care for. The main character is Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl who before the start of the film has been murdered by a neighborhood pedophile. Susie narrates the film from a strange afterworld where she hovers, torn between watching the continuing lives of her family and her killer, and moving on into an incredible unknown. It turns out that this premise was not as attractive to mainstream audiences as that of Jackson's earlier efforts, KING KONG (2005) and THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001-2003). But the $44 million domestic gross is better than I expected before looking it up, and probably represents break even or modest long term profit money for Paramount/Dreamworks.
I found the book The Lovely Bones to be voyeuristic and stylistically repellent. When PJ bought the rights, I privately questioned his judgment and missed out on seeing the film during its theatrical run. But, as in his earlier film adaptations, Jackson knew just what film he wanted to make. The film celebrates but does not imitate the source material, seeming instead to flow directly from the collective id of Jackson and his writing and production partners, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson et al. do not linger over the unspeakable crime and instead take up the theme of resilience. Given that the worst possible thing has happened, will Susie be forever defined by what she has lost? Will the surviving family members return to a semblance of their former lives? Is the foulness of the killer strong enough to unravel the web that holds the community together? While portions of the film are emotionally harrowing, we ultimately find that with respect to these questions, the filmmakers are cautiously optimistic.
This approach is audacious and unconventional. Child murder is hardly an uncommon contemporary theme. But it is all but invariably treated as a grotesquerie in a world that is godless and bleak. Jackson makes little effort to protect himself from broadsides like this one, penned by Roger Ebert, über-critic and lovely human being: "'The Lovely Bones' is a deplorable film with this message: If you're a 14-year-old girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, you have a lot to look forward to."
One indeed wonders how Peter Jackson dared to make a film about a murdered girl's journey through Heaven. THE LOVELY BONES is childish in the best sense of the word; simple, in a way which stole my breath. It is Peter Jackson's most vulnerable film, and perhaps most thorough treatment of death, his great theme. Someday I may write a piece connecting THE LOVELY BONES to THE FRIGHTENERS (1996) and his other films behind and yet to come.
The performances of Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlberg, and Saorise Ronan, and the score by Brian Eno, are exceptionally fine. I wish that Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli had been given more to do. Overall, I found the film to be brave, lovely, and unforgettable.
I found the book The Lovely Bones to be voyeuristic and stylistically repellent. When PJ bought the rights, I privately questioned his judgment and missed out on seeing the film during its theatrical run. But, as in his earlier film adaptations, Jackson knew just what film he wanted to make. The film celebrates but does not imitate the source material, seeming instead to flow directly from the collective id of Jackson and his writing and production partners, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson et al. do not linger over the unspeakable crime and instead take up the theme of resilience. Given that the worst possible thing has happened, will Susie be forever defined by what she has lost? Will the surviving family members return to a semblance of their former lives? Is the foulness of the killer strong enough to unravel the web that holds the community together? While portions of the film are emotionally harrowing, we ultimately find that with respect to these questions, the filmmakers are cautiously optimistic.
This approach is audacious and unconventional. Child murder is hardly an uncommon contemporary theme. But it is all but invariably treated as a grotesquerie in a world that is godless and bleak. Jackson makes little effort to protect himself from broadsides like this one, penned by Roger Ebert, über-critic and lovely human being: "'The Lovely Bones' is a deplorable film with this message: If you're a 14-year-old girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, you have a lot to look forward to."
One indeed wonders how Peter Jackson dared to make a film about a murdered girl's journey through Heaven. THE LOVELY BONES is childish in the best sense of the word; simple, in a way which stole my breath. It is Peter Jackson's most vulnerable film, and perhaps most thorough treatment of death, his great theme. Someday I may write a piece connecting THE LOVELY BONES to THE FRIGHTENERS (1996) and his other films behind and yet to come.
The performances of Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlberg, and Saorise Ronan, and the score by Brian Eno, are exceptionally fine. I wish that Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli had been given more to do. Overall, I found the film to be brave, lovely, and unforgettable.