THE LOVELY BONES
US/New Zealand, 2009, 135 minutes, Colour.
Saoirse Roman, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Nikki Soo Hoo, Amanda Michalka, Jake Abel, Rose Mc Ivor, Michael Imperioli, Reece Ritchie, Thomas Mc Carthy, Carolyn Dando.
Directed by Peter Jackson.
After The Lord of the Rings and King Kong, a Peter Jackson film sets up an expectation for most audiences for an epic adventure with special effects and action. It is unfair to him – audiences should remember Heavenly Creatures – and he has tried to break through the expectation with this American story of 1973 in a small Pennsylvania town where a serial killer murders a 14 year old girl. Teenagers and murder may remind some of Heavenly Creatures and that is probably a good thing because that film blended realism with fantasy and imagination. Which is what The Lovely Bones does as well.
It is based on a novel by Alice Sebold, who is thanked in the final credits (though devotees of the novel have not hesitated in blogging how much they dislike the film and Jackson's interpretation of the novel).
What distinguishes the film from other murder stories is that it is narrated by the dead Susie Salmon, who guides the audience through what happened to her (with some restraint in what is actually shown on screen). The other distinguishing feature is that she is shown, not in Heaven, but in a temporary afterlife called the In Between, where the landscapes, touches of lollipops and rainbows, is part of the dead girl's imagination (something similar to the visions of heaven in Vincent Ward's What Dreams May Come), that of a young female teenager (rather than the In Between that some adult critics thought should be modelled on their imagination, which might mean something of a dour place rather than the sentimentality they said they experienced). It is interesting to look back at Heavenly Creatures and see how Peter Jackson also created the imaginary world of his teenage murderers.
Susie's family are distraught, the father (Mark Wahlberg, good but sometimes too restrained though he does have a number of angry outbursts) becomes obsessed and makes demands on the friendly detective on the case (Michael Imperioli). The mother (Rachel Weisz, who is a strong screen presence) cannot cope with what has happened and with her husband's persistence in searching, so has to go away from her family. Susan Sarandon appears as the hard-drinking, smoking grandmother who seems too much of a caricature for the tone of this storytelling. The victim's sister (Rose McIver) uses her grief with more initiative and precipitates the resolution of the case.
But it is Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, City of Ember, Death Defying Acts) who commands attention as Susie – in her ordinary life before her death, in the encounter with the killer, in her delight and her distress in the In Between and her desire that the killer give an account of his crime. And Stanley Tucci as the quiet neighbour who is the smooth-tongued serial murderer gives a performance that takes us into the devious mind and emotions of a sexual predator.
Because the story told by the victim is not usual, audiences may find it hard to respond to its changing moods and locations. This reviewer found the character of the grandmother unbalancing the impact and could have done without her. Audiences may be saying similar things about other aspects that they found difficult or off-putting. So, not an entirely satisfying experience, though Peter Jackson has tried to be creative in telling his tale in an offbeat style.
1.The work of Peter Jackson and expectations? Adapting the popular novel? Imagination blended with realism? (The hostile reviews from fans of the book?)
2.The title, indications of death, family bonds? Physical and spiritual?
3.Pennsylvania 1973, the small town and its ordinariness, homes and streets, the domestic sequences, school, the cornfields?
4.The contrast with Mr Harvey’s cellar, its décor, the lure and the attraction? Mr Harvey’s own home?
5.The In Between, the landscapes, the rainbow colours, the girl’s perspective, a child’s perspective? Lonely in company? The balls, the trees, the snow, the waterfalls? Holly? The group? A kind of purgatory, an interim on the way to Heaven?
6.Religious dimensions in secular images, not a focus on God, but death, the afterlife, Heaven, and moral evaluation?
7.Suzy’s voice-over, her explanation of the murder, her age? Her life, the details of family, taking photos, going to school, studying Othello, her friends? Bike-riding? Her death, the issue of vengeance, the resolution of the case? Willing her family and Ray and Ruth to uncover the truth?
8.The Salmon family, ordinary? Nice parents? Work, at home? Lindsay and her relationship with her sister? Seeing the routines, coming home from work, preparation of the meals? Suzy late – and the awareness of tragedy?
9.Suzy at school, her friends, discussions about Othello, about Laurence Olivier as a loser? Her attraction towards Ray, looking at him, embarrassed, talking in the corridor? The headmaster and his reaction and speech? The messages, Ray and the poem, blown away, Ruth finding it?
10.Ruth, a strange character in the town, psychic experience, the loner, finding the poem, knowing that Suzy had been killed, the friendship with Ray, in the hut together, the bond? Her seeing the truth? The response, at the tip? Seeing Mr Harvey, her attempts to resolve the issue?
11.George Harvey, the quiet neighbour, polite, in the garden, photographed by Suzy? Architect, the model house and the police inspector’s reaction? Meeting Suzy, talking with her, his plausible talk, through the cornfield, into the cellar, his explanations, talking about children, Suzy and her nervousness, wanting to leave, his talk about politeness – the build-up to the murder? The later suggestions of the murder, glimpses of blood…? Harvey at home, answering the police inquiries, perfectly calm, offering sympathy to Suzy’s father? Lindsay and her going into the house, finding the book, the information about Suzy, the plans?
12.Suzy and her purgatorial experience, her hatred for George Harvey, vengeance, the child’s perspective? Meeting with Holly, Holly as a companion, her own personality, Holly Golightly? The encounter with the other children, her becoming aware of the catalogue of Harvey’s crimes, the names and dates, the victims? The group gathering together?
13.The portrait of Suzy’s parents, desperate, the search, working with the police, the father and his tenacity, pursuing every line of investigation, pressurising the police? At home, disturbed? Abigail, her concern, her reaction to her mother’s presence? Her having to leave, working away from home, the postcard, her return? The father and his suspicions, going into the cornfields, being battered?
14.Grandmother, different, her drinking and smoking, talk, commonsense, cleaning the house, working with each parent, with Lindsay?
15.The police and their inquiries, the father and his attack? Yet the friendship with the investigator? His visits, interrogations?
16.The passing of time, Lindsay growing up, her life, boyfriend, study, her running and training?
17.Going into Harvey’s house, breaking in, the search, the floorboard, finding the book, Harvey coming home, the pursuit, diving out the window, the chase?
18.Harvey, the body in the box, taking it to the tip – and the image of the tip throughout the film, rubbish being thrown there, vast, objects sinking? The tension with his getting the help of the man he paid to roll the trunk to the edge of the tip? Ruth and Ray watching? The suspense? Throwing the container into the tip and its disappearing? His arrest?
19.The family at peace?
20.Suzy, watching, willing people to act, understanding, being with the victims, going to Heaven?
21.An ordinary story of a child abduction and abuse, murder? Yet looking at it from a different perspective, from the girl’s parents, the parents and the police? The portrait of the serial killer and understanding his psyche? The themes of transcendence, afterlife and Heaven?
