Review of The Lovely Bones (2009) by Spangle — 04 Jan 2016

The Lovely Bones has a lot going for it, but the more I thought about it, the more I truly came to dislike the film. The cast, led by Saoirse Ronan, is great. In particular, Stanley Tucci is phenomenal and really captures the perfect vibe and mannerisms for his character.

Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz are also good here. Additionally, the film is really well shot and the premise is very good. The special effects are also well done, but are really where this one starts to die.

The special effects are wasted continuously on scenes that are simply not needed and add nothing to the film. In fact, they only serve to make the film dumber with their nonsense. The film's very base logic argues against itself, leading for a very troubling message to arise that it is okay to kill somebody for revenge and it is the only way to get into heaven.

Numerous characters are so poorly written it hurts. Hell, most of them do not even need to be here. They themselves are fluff. Filled to the brim with fluff, the film continues to hurt itself by having scenes where character's motivations make no sense and an absolutely absurd romance.

Overall, The Lovely Bones is far too pretty to completely disregard, plus Ronan and Tucci make this one well worth your time. However, as a piece of cinema, it is serious lacking.