Review of The Lovely Bones (2009) by Richard D — 05 Nov 2016

I gather that the book this is adapted from is extremely popular. I can't really see any indications of why from this pretty dreadful film. I grant that a lot of what's dreadful about it comes from Jackson's choices.

It's not just that there are too many special effects, and not enough focus on the relationships between the characters. The effects are oppressive in the way they over determine what the afterlife is like for the audience and rob them of any imagination they could bring to the film.

The casting is inconsistent. Saoirse Ronan is really quite good, and Rachel Weisz and Michael Imperioli do well with their extremely sketchy characters, but Mark Wahlberg is unconvincing in a role he's completely miscast in.

There was much praise and an Oscar nomination for Stanley Tucci, but I wasn't really impressed with his performance in what I grant is a silly, underwritten part. Worst of all, the film tackles big ideas and has very little of any interest to say about any of them.