Review of The Lovely Bones (2009) by Jackc — 18 Jan 2010

The Lovely Bones is a good solid film. There are aspects of the film that are great, and there are other aspects that do not work so well. Overall, the film is entertaining, suspenseful (and a little scary), emotional, and it offers something genuinely different than most of the garbage that goes to theaters.

Do not get me wrong, this film has flaws, and truthfully, I'd give this more of a 7.5 rating, but it is absurd that this film has as low reviews as it does. It is a well-made, ultimately compelling film that I will concede is not as moving or powerful as it could or should be.

It is not a failure at all, but, again, certain aspects do not work as well as others. But, to me, it's a lot more interesting to watch an interesting "failure" than another rote by the numbers thriller or tired raunchy comedy.

Again, The Lovely Bones is not a failure, but I can appreciate the film even when it slips, because the overall vision is admirably ambitious (elements of domestic drama / thriller / fantasy collide together) and generally well-done.

I say this not to provoke, but I frankly enjoyed The Lovely Bones much, much more than Avatar. Avatar was an experience, yes, but as a film, I found it formulaic, cliched, predictable, and pretty cheesy.

I just find it too bad that critics can fawn over Avatar, which is pretty empty when you remove the bells and whistles, and then many of the same ones shrug or sneer at The Lovely Bones. Again, TLB is not a GREAT film, but it is good, and deserves much better reviews than it is getting.