The Lovely Bones is about Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), a young girl whose life was stolen from her by her neighbor Mr. Harvey (Stanley Tucci). This is not a movie for guys like me. It’s about Susie’s feelings, hopes and fantasies. That’s why I couldn’t relate to it at all.
It is a character-driven story based on a novel that I haven’t read and have no intentions of reading any time soon. The only reason why I watched the movie was because it was directed by Peter Jackson. And he didn’t cease to amaze me with the visual effects he incorporated into The Lovely Bones.
In order to enjoy a character-driven movie, the viewers should feel a connection with any of the characters but I felt none from anyone in the movie. And I can’t blame the cast for it. Mark Wahlberg portrayed the devastated father well and Rachel Weisz should also be commended for her performance in The Lovely Bones.
There were no surprises as to who raped and killed Susie Salmon. This was revealed in the first few minutes of The Lovely Bones. Harvey came out too creepy that you can immediately tell that he’s the one. It managed to suspend the logical mind for 2 hours and 15 minutes but it failed to be suspenseful at all.
I got a bone to pick with one of the sequences when Harvey was about to dump Susie’s bones into the sinkhole. Ruth (Carolyn Dando) saw him and she called Ray (Reece Ritchie) because she saw Susie’s reflection. Susie goes into Ruth’s body and instead of stopping the killer from dumping her body, she asked for a kiss from Ray. I guess for a 15 year old girl, a kiss was more important than catching the killer.
Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan): These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence. The connections, sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it.
The Lovely Bones is definitely not my type of movie. It is also not a book that I would read in this lifetime. The movie had several plot holes that Peter Jackson must have spent his time developing the CGI of the movie instead of devising a good plot. I want to know from those who read the book about their thoughts of the film adaptation. Anyone?
