Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones – DVD review

Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, based on the Alice Sebold novel of the same name, is an exercise in artistry.  To take on the story of a murdered girl and tell it from her perspective requires the kind of balls only the director of the LOTR trilogy can claim.  Jackson and his fellow writers bring Sebold’s tale to the big screen with such creativity and grace that they tell the story better than Sebold herself.

As mentioned above, the movie is about, and told from the perspective of, a murdered girl.  While the body of Susie Salmon (portrayed by relative newcomer and badass-in-training Saoirse Ronan) remains missing on Earth, her spirit enters her own heaven, where she meets a host of characters meant to aid her in adjusting to the afterlife. However, Susie’s interests remain with her family as she watches them try to deal with what has happened.  As the evidence pointing towards her death mounts, her father becomes increasingly focused on finding her killer, and Susie is determined to help from beyond. 

It’s at this point where the story is rife with opportunities to go off-the-wall weird in the name of familial bonds extending beyond life and death.  Instead we are introduced to Susie’s ethereal world stuck halfway between her old life and what lies ahead.  Instead of focusing on the dark, Jackson brings in the light.  It’s almost as if the scenery were drawn with pastels and then rinsed in the sink; as if everything could fade away in an instant.  And though we are brought back to reality over and over again by Susie’s father (played by Mark Wahlberg, in excellent form) as he becomes obsessed with finding his daughter’s killer, the warmth of Susie’s world lingers.  Added to the scenery is a haunting soundtrack that is both inspired and tragic, matching perfectly with the aura of the action onscreen. 

All of this praise is not to say that this is a movie for everyone. It deals with the frank subject matter of every parent’s worst fear:  the serial killer in the neighborhood.  Just because it does so in a way that is both respectful and visually appealing does not make it any less hard to watch.  And just because Jackson chose not to focus on the potentially bizarre aspect of love from beyond doesn’t mean that it is completely absent.  At the end, I felt sick, triumphant, and  in need of a call to my parents to tell them I love them.

One final note on this being a review of the DVD (not the Blu-Ray, so we’re clear)–I’m not one for watching special features, so I can’t tell you what’s on the DVD much less what’s worthwhile.  But the story’s really all you need, in my opinion.