The Lovely Bones 042010

A young girl in the 70’s is murdered by her pedophilic serial killer neighbor. The movie follows as she is stuck in limbo and attempts to move on to the other side and her family attempts to move on from her death.

This is Peter Jackson’s first movie since King Kong (which I will admit was too long and could’ve done without the ice skating scene but I did like it) and it’s not what you’d expect. It’s more like his pre Lord of the Rings movies which were standarder dramas with some very clever visuals. The movie is a very taught story and keeps you on the edge of your seat for pretty much the whole movie. The afterlife scenes are amazing and while secular in worldview it actually makes heaven look really fun with just enough strange thrown in. Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg give their usual excellent performances (except for Wahlberg’s dual strike-out with The Happening and Max Payne but we’ll forget about that) as the parents but the real stars in this one though are Stanley Tucci as the psychopath and Saoirse (pronounced sur-shuh but it’s Gaelic) Ronan as the lead girl. Tucci is one of those that everyone’s seen in something but no one knows who he is. Look him up if you doubt me. He’s just a little bit pitiable, a lot mousy, and all kinds of creepy in a subtle way that makes it extra freaky. Imagine Alan Rickman crossed with Rick Moranis. Sounds strange but it’s close to the right image. Ronan is another on my list of young actors to keep an eye on. If you don’t believe me watch Death Defying Acts. It has Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta Jones and she stole the movie. She is a brilliant actress and only fifteen. She’s also going to be really attractive. I can’t comment on her current attractive level because she’s a minor.

The negative. Two words: the ending. It’s totally strange. You like it but it’s totally not satisfying. At all. And with all the amazing visuals at the very end there’s one that’s so fake looking it reminds you of the 80’s.

A-. It’s a great movie that strangely enough for a drama is a joy to look at it and unlike Avatar, it’s got depth behind the spectacle.