Movie Review: The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones

PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images and some language.
Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

An adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel – The Lovely Bones – tells the story of Susie Salmon who’s murdered, but continues to observe her family on Earth after her death. Even though she’s detached from the world, Susie witnesses the impact her loss has on her loved ones while her killer covers his tracks and prepares to murder once again.

Hanging in the “in-between” place, Susie Salmon weighs her desire for vengeance versus the desire for her family to heal.

A Meandering Movie Looking For Focus

The Lovely Bones is best described as a movie in search of direction. Overall it covers a number of important themes. However, it’s slow and meandering style creates a number of “yawn” moments. To put it bluntly, The Lovely Bones spends too much time searching for true direction and theme threads.

There’s simply too much going on here!

While the acting is good, the performances of Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Saoirse Ronan are lost in this up and down movie. Then, on top of the fact that it’s a rather slow movie, The Lovely Bones clocks in at over 2 hours. As a result it becomes more like a long and boring  Law & Order or Cold Case episode.

Heading into this movie we knew the basic premise. But, we did not expect it to take so long for the writers to get to the point of Susie Salmon being killed. While I have not read the book, I have to wonder if the writers tried to include too much of the book. As a result, it simply losses its translation from the written word, to the big screen. Some of the scenes could have been telescoped quite easily. On top of the slow moving movie, the director seemed somewhat too fascinated with what’s called the “in-between”. It’s easy to tell Stephen Spielberg was involved with the film techniques of the “in-between”. While the special effects during those segments of the movie were interesting, they were stretched out too long.

As for plot, if you could sort out the various threads, the solving of the case is rather fascinating. There are twists and turns tossed in along the way which do build a sense of anticipation. But again, the rambling nature of The Lovely Bones causes too many snooze points to really keep your attention.

This is not an “eyes-riveted-to-the-screen” type movie at all.

There are a few aspects of The Lovely Bones which do translate into redeeming factors keeping us from totally trashing this movie.

• Mark Wahlberg proves once again that he’s a good actor. While he does not have a presence that leaps off the screen, he has an unassuming and presence that puts you on the edge of your seat as you watch him perform.
• Even though they were too many, the effects in the “in-between” place were eye catching.
• Plot line interesting and intriguing, just meandered too much. There are some “Wow! I didn’t see that coming” moments!
• A good case study of family dynamics when a tragic event takes place.
• Most importantly – They abide by the Dr. Rus movie principal of “Don’t hurt the Mustang!” There’s a Mustang scene where I was sure the classic ‘Stang would be hurt. But, they did not hurt the ‘Stang. Well done!

All in all, The Lovely Bones is a less than spectacular movie.

The premise is intriguing, the mystery is interesting. But, in the long run, it’s simply too long and seems to be in a constant search for focus. With a PG-13 rating, we also have to say The Lovely Bones is not family-friendly. Not only is the subject material too intense, the tone of the movie probably is not very appealing to the teen crowd anyway.

The bottom line is – The Lovely Bones is artsy, cutsie and different from the usual Hollywood offerings. But, it’s nothing to really write home about.

Wait for the DVD!
Dr. Rus