The Lovely Bones (2009)

After the big budget logistics of the LOTR trilogy and the KING KONG remake, director Peter Jackson returns to his somewhat more modest roots with his adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel by Alice Sebold. In 1973, a 14 year old girl (Saoirse Ronan ATONEMENT) is brutally raped and murdered and from Heaven looks down on how her parents (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz) and siblings as well as her killer (Stanley Tucci) cope with the aftermath of her murder. I’ve not read the novel myself but Jackson has apparently changed the tone of the novel which was more introspective into a more conventional thriller. Jackson seems more interested in the CGI “heaven” effects which while pretty impressive are not all that different from the same fantasy landscape of his breakthrough film HEAVENLY CREATURES than in the emotional landscape of his characters. The film is uneven and the comedy relief of Susan Sarandon as Ronan’s swinging grandmother brings nothing to the film. I hated Brian Eno’s intrusive and obvious score. There are some lovely moments (like the dead flower blooming in Wahlberg’s hand) but clearly there was a far superior film in there somewhere which eluded Jackson.