Director Peter Jackson’s triumphant “Lord of the Rings” trilogy showed he could tackle one of the most challenging – and beloved – texts of all time.
So why did Alice Sebold’s modest tale of loss and healing, “The Lovely Bones,” give him fits?
Jackson’s “Bones” seemed a sure bet for Oscar glory, but instead the film drew withering early reviews and disdain.
With good reason.
The film has its pluses, including another wonderful turn by rising star Saoirse Ronan and some brutally tense early moments. But the more “Bones” plays on, the more audiences will realize Jackson was the wrong choice to tell this haunting story.
“Bones” stars Ronan as Susie, a bright teen being raised in a loving family. She has a healthy curiosity in photography and a naivete about the darker side of the people on her block.
That matters when she decides to follow her oafish neighbor (Stanley Tucci) who asks her to check out something he built for kids in the neighborhood.
It’s not hard to piece together what happens next, and Jackson wisely shows us nothing of the horrors which follows.
Susie’s death sends her skyward, and she starts watching her family and friends from a mysterious netherworld that isn’t quite Heaven but it sure is pretty to look at.
And here’s where the problem begins.
Jackson must rely on Susie’s family to keep our attention. Her parents, played by Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz, can’t sustain our interest as key elements from the book are stripped away for expediency’s sake. And Susie’s new vantage point is just a distraction, not a way to enhance the audience’s sense of understanding, or even healing.
Jackson overplays his special effects hand here, which is remarkable given how expertly he weaved CGI wonders into his “Rings” saga.
In “Bones,” the effects overwhelm a story on thin legs as it is.
“The Lovely Bones” injects a mad blast of comic relief courtesy of Susan Sarandon playing Susie’s free-spirited grandma. She’s out of place here, just like Jackson seems lost telling a story so far away from his natural gifts.
(Photo: Saoirse Ronan plays a girl looking down on the earth after being brutally murdered in ‘The Lovely Bones.”/Warner Bros.)
Related posts:
on 
on 
on 
on 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
You don’t get David Lean to do “Barefoot in the Park”.