The Lovely Bones

I love movies and I don't get to see as many of them as I would like.  Going to a movie theatre to see the next great blockbuster is not cheap entertainment anymore.  My husband is not a movie person so renting them isn't much of an option either cause he usually falls asleep and the movies that I would actually like to see are not on Video On Demand when I want them to be.

So thanks to some wonderful colleagues I was given passes to see an advanced screening of The Lovely Bones.  Directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame and starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon and a relatively large cast of rising stars, unknowns to me, but maybe well known to others.

The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Alice Sebold and is told from the point of view of Suzie Salmon, murdered at 14 years old by a neighborhood pedophile.  Suzie is in an "in between place" between heaven and earth and watches while her father searches desperately for her murderer, her family falls apart, friends come together...all because of her.

While the movie started off strong and left the viewer with the belief that you were about to witness something great...it faltered part way through.  The desperation of a grief stricken father lacked conviction and determination, the outcome did not live up to the expectations of the beginning and the middle...to put it bluntly...was just wierd.  While some of the graphics and special effects used to create the "in between" were absolutely stunning, there were a lot of areas that were just completely pointless and added nothing to the story. 

I found myself very disappointed that there was not more interaction with Suzie post-mortem and her family.  I am a huge believer in ghosts and the supernatural so if somehow she had been more involved in helping her family find her killer, I would have believed it and enjoyed it far more.

And the ending, was just unsatisfying. 

I am not a movie critic...this is just my opinion...but if I were to rate this movie on a scale of 1-5, it gets a 3.

With that said, I will probably watch it again when it's on video but my next task is going to be to read the book.  I have the feeling that I will be much more satisfied with how it was intended. 

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