December 24, 2009 -- Most movie ghost stories are not told from the perspective of the ghost. Most ghosts in those stories are not victims of serial killers, either. “The Lovely Bones” has both of these elements, and more. It defies most conventions and it defies most categories too. It is part ghost story, part romance and part murder mystery. It also has some humorous scenes in it, too. A good portion of the movie takes place in the afterlife. In all probability, it tries to do too many different things all at once, but I like an ambitious film that takes on challenges like this.

“The Lovely Bones” is the latest film from the husband and wife team of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who once combined for another challenging project known as the Lord of the Rings movies. This doesn't come off as well as that project did, but it works surprisingly well for being such a complicated, challenging film. The images of the afterlife are colorful, imaginative and brilliantly conceived. A good cast of actors delivers solid performances in a film that runs the gamut from suspense to tragedy, romance and comedy.

The main character is Susie Salmon (played by award-winning actress Saoirse Ronan of “Atonement”). She is murdered by a serial killer, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci of “Julie and Julia”) a seemingly harmless neighbor. Susie finds herself in between earth and heaven in the afterlife. She cannot move on until she takes care of some unfinished business back on earth. Susie's father, Jack (played by Mark Wahlberg of “The Departed”) cannot move past her death either until he knows what happened to his daughter. Susie's body has never been found and her killer was never captured. Jack's obsession with finding Susie's killer finally forces his wife, Abigail (Rachel Weisz of “Definitely, Maybe”) to leave. This brings on the comic element, Jack's chain-smoking, chain-drinking mother, Lynn (Susan Sarandon of “In the Valley of Elah”) moves in with her less-than-adequate homemaking skills.

Susie appears, ghost-like to her father and her brother, Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale). Jack and Susie's younger sister, Lindsey (Rose McIver of “The Piano”) both start getting wise to George Harvey. With some hints from Susie, they both start to figure out that Harvey is a killer, but they have no proof. Also caught up with Susie's unfinished business is Ruth (Carolyn Dando) a strange young girl who can sometimes see dead people and Susie's former boyfriend, Ray Singh (Reece Ritchie of “10,000 B.C.”) who she never got to first base with. As you would expect with a film this unusual, it doesn't exactly play out the way one would expect. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2009 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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