Review of The Lovely Bones (2009) by Nathanl. — 16 Jan 2010

At times difficult, at times moving, at times rushed, and at times beautiful. The Lovely Bones is a daring film that reaches near perfection but, hits a couple bumps along the way. Much criticism has been thrown at the visuals for taking to much time away from the characters.

This is not so. Other than a fleeting seen of 70's psychedelic visionary when Susie accepts that she can enjoy herself, the use of visuals is very inspired. It is not the way I would have pictured it from the book but, in a way it is better.

And the use of the gazebo as the place where Susie is in limbo, watching the world, is much better than placing her in the room as I did in my head. There has also been criticism about a lack of emotion in this film.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I broke down in tears at least 3 times in this movie. The moment when Susie says, in her perfect voice over narration, that "he could not know the love a father has for his daughter," I was moved in ways that the book could not quite get out of me.

This of course is partly because of the performances and that amazing voice over but, it has largely to do with the technical side of things. The lighting, editing, Andrew Lesnie's cinematography, Brian Eno's wonderful score, and Peter Jackson's visionary direction all combine to pull the emotion out that I only really felt once in the novel.

As a matter of fact, if I was to judge this film by the first 45 minutes to an hour it would be in my top ten films of the year. However, this is where the movie reaches it's issue. The events that take place once the movie settles on the fact that Susie is dead are quite a bit rushed.

Scenes are shortened and montages created in order to get as much of the story as possible in there. This is not because visual effects are overbearing the film, it is actually becuase of the perfect hour that preceded it.

In the book, we start right off the bat with Susie's murder. The movie takes it's time and develops the family before creating the huge ripple in their lives. This works much better than the book did in creating an emotional connection to these characters.

This is extremely well done in the connection the movie creates between Susie (played perfectly by Soairse Ronan) and her father, Jack (Mark Wahlberg in one of his best performances). However, without stretching the movie to well over 3 hours, the movie needed to make some tough decisions on what to cut from the novel.

It could be argued that he cut to much but, I would argue that he may have needed to cut more to leave room for some of the scenes he has to grow. I think that Mr. Harvey is so perfectly played by Stanley Tucci that I did not really need to go to deep into his past and see the other victims.

I think shifting some of that time back over into the other side of the story could have fixed this problem. This is not to say that these pieces do not work to bring together a coherent whole but, in there rushed state the uplifting transcendance that may have been achieved in Susie's acceptance of death is slightly lost.

And the kiss she so longs for is not quite as moving as it could have been. These are all minor issues that prevent an outstanding film from becoming a masterpiece. Things that are usually forgotten in repeat viewing or sometimes enhanced.

I believe that I will enjoy this film more a second time as I will not feel any need to wish for different sections to fill out as firmly as they did in the novel. A film can never be a book. At times it can be better.

At times it can be worse. The Lovely Bones exists in the middle as a singular vision from a brilliant director who loved what he saw in their pages.