Mixed Feelings

The Lovely Bones, based on a novel by Alice Sebold, is the story of a teenage girl who is murdered. After her death, she watches over her family from what is referred to as the place "in between" heaven and earth to see how they are coping with her death as she does so herself.

I have not read the novel myself but I have heard that the movie was different from the book and apparently left out some important parts from the novel. Those of you who have read the novel - do you agree? Some readers maybe upset by this but I don't think people should blame the director, Peter Jackson, because each person interprets a novel differently. Perhaps the parts that some of the readers thought were important didn't seem relevant to the director. You can only fit so much in a two and half hour movie. I must say the movie was too long and dragged a bit.

I think Stanley Tucci was quite convincing as George Harvey, the creepy old man who murders young girls. I also liked his work in Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia. Saoirse Ronan also did an excellent job as Susie Salmon. Others were good too but I think Tucci and Ronan were the highlights of the movie.

I think the film was edited well. I liked how they interchanged the scenes between what was happening to her and what was happening with her family especially in the scene where she is in the underground room Harvey builds and her family is having dinner. I also liked the ending. At first, I was surprised by it but I think that was the moral of the story that people who do bad things in the world eventually have to pay the price for it. God is not unjust and punishes those who sin. Was the book ending the same?

I didn't understand how a mother could leave her two ALIVE children behind. I think Susie was in between heaven and earth after she died because she was waiting to be at peace with her death after her family would avenge her murder. But how did she move on just after kissing the boy she loved? How did her father move on? How come the police didn't do their job? Why didn't they show how she was murdered?

On the whole, I think the movie was a heart warming story and perhaps those who have ever lost someone they love can relate. However, I have mixed feelings about it. I think it was not great but good. However, I think you can wait to watch it on DVD. If you can't wait that long, I would recommend watching a matinee show or a $6 show in a Multiplex cinema on a Tuesday because it's not good enough to spend $11 on.