Peter Jackson should just stick to Hobbits.
Not all bestsellers need to have a cinematic interpretation. Clint Eastwood’s 1997 film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was adapted from a non-fiction novel that was on The New York Times best-sellers list for a staggering 216 weeks. Yet when the film was released it was met with a lukewarm response; it didn’t carry nearly as much fanfare because of additions and subtractions that were made to the adaptation.
Knowing very little of The Lovely Bones, I can only go on the assumption of what I’ve read, and what I’ve read is that the novel is unfilmable. Peter Jackson, the man who did cinematic wonders with J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, probably figured he could handle the material. Alice Sebold’s work may lack hobbits and wizards, but a ‘70s-era period piece enmeshed with the afterlife is not an easy feat.
As much as we’d like to believe that Peter Jackson scales things back after the heralded trilogy, he produces yet another special effects picture with a lingering menace. Instead of Gollum we have a serial killer. The story is one of glumness and observances made by a pragmatic fourteen-year-old girl, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), who is caught in between Heaven and Earth. Yet, the film as a whole feels too polished; Jackson removes certain horrors to ensure that the film not be labeled with a restricted rating. The result is a cross between What Dreams May Come and a Lifetime movie-of-the-week.
Susie is a good girl fawning over an Indian transplant from England. They share glances and even attend a film club together. (A film club in high school during the seventies – who says Betamax is dead?) One day after school, she cuts across a cornfield and comes across one of her neighbors, Mr. Harvey (Stanley Tucci), who convinces her to step down into the underground clubhouse/hideaway he’s built. He tells her that it’s a place where the kids can hang out after school (but we know better). It is there where Susie is brutally murdered and her spirit enters the “in between” – a rest stop before going to Heaven. But in this nether world, you can live your fantasies, like change the seasons on a whim or dressing in clothes you’ve always wanted to wear. Susie can also see how her family grieves in her absence. Parents Jack (Mark Wahlberg) and Abigail (Rachel Weisz) are left in a shocked and bewildered state. Jack is so driven to find the man that killed his little girl that it ultimately drives Abigail away. Lindsey (Rose McIver), Susie’s sister, begins to harbor suspicions about neighbor George Harvey. Harvey recognizes Lindsey’s intrusive nature and that makes her a potential target in his eyes.
Peter Jackson’s depiction of Heaven may be heavenly-looking, but it’s the navigation that’s a bore. The time spent in the afterlife takes away from the family drama that should be central to the story. Instead, the film becomes a series of the vignettes featuring the Salmon family. Jack searching for the killer; Lindsey running her dog; and Grandma Lynn (Susan Sarandon), who shows up as Abigail is about to exit, as the comic relief.
At 135 minutes, The Lovely Bones should feel long, but Jackson takes short cuts to speed up the flow of time. (By the end, I was unsure how much time had elapsed from the time Susie was murdered until the conclusion.) So we are left with incomplete character arcs and a disappointing finale. We also learn little of Harvey’s character, only what we can discern in an afterlife montage of all of the women he’s killed.
And even those killings are ambiguous. This again goes back to the “polished” look of the film. By sanitizing what really happens to Suzie – how she is raped, murdered and dismembered – it makes it much easier to absorb. But it’s really an emotional tourniquet that cuts off the impact the death truly has on the Salmon family.
Though Harvey’s character is one-dimensional, Stanley Tucci performance is one of the few standouts in The Lovely Bones. For the longest time I thought Harvey was played by Jeff Daniels based solely on his appearance. George Harvey is like that neighbor who lives down the street that people make a point to never look directly at his house. Or, he’s like Boo Radley only with a propensity for killing little girls. Saoirse Ronan is serviceable in her role as Susie (the narrator and murder victim), but it’s not in the same league as her performance in Atonement.
The Lovely Bones, is a miscalculation by Peter Jackson, who has spent the better part of the decade with The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. With those colossal projects, he’s forgotten how to tell stories on a smaller scale (Heavenly Creatures, anyone?). Had Bones adhered to that mold, then it would have been an engrossing drama. As such, it’s just a mediocre one.
