The Lovely Bones

[Fringified]

Susie Salmon, a young girl who has been murdered, watches over her family -- and her killer -- from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

The above is the description Yahoo! gives the Lovely Bones. The second sentence is completely irrevelant to the actual story. Here is my review for The Lovely Bones, and I will try my best to depict the ups and downs as closely as possible.

The first half of the movie - freakin' incredible!
The second half of the movie - it sucked.

(WARNING: In the spoiler tags below, I give away a lot of the movie. If you actually plan on going to see this movie (although I recommend against it), don't read the tags.)

Let's start with the first half. The beginning was very good. The suspense to Susie's murder was paced perfectly. As the killer lured her in, the anticipation had me on the edge of my seat. The beginning was also quite scary, as Susie first began to experience the afterlife. I always thought something would pop out at me, although nothing ever did. The movie showed the "in-between" of Heaven and Earth as a magnificent place, and I was amazed at the visuals and my mouth gaped at certain landscapes that were shown - it was simply beautiful!

A character is introduced, I forget her name, but she has some sort of psychic ability ... we are never actually told what it is. The entire time I thought she would help Susie's father find the killer. This is the first let down. She never did. She was pretty much just standing there the entire movie.

There was no way that the Salmon family could have actually known who the killer was. This is how the father figured out: He parked into the middle of the street (I know, wtf?) and got out of his car. He started walking towards the street, when the killer is at his house behind him, and the killer drops a bunch of sticks, for a project he is working on. Jack Salmon hears the sticks, turns around, and starts to help the killer, Mr. Harvey. He helps Mr. Harvey start to construct a "duck trap" in the backyard. Jack looks at a dead rose on a push, and (all in slow motion) pulls it off. Dramatic music was playing. Why? I don't know. He looks at the rose. Suddenly, it comes alive, blooms, and turns red. But it was only Jack's imagination. It never happened. Then he meets eye contact with Mr. Harvey. Suddenly he knows it was him. Did I miss something? Please, writers, fix the plot holes. Make it believable. Yes, Jack was right when he though Mr. Harvey was the killer, but seriously, it's the how that matters.

After watching the trailers, I thought that Susie would help her father track down her killer. After all, she knows who it is. But no. Instead, Susie decides to frolic in fields of dandelions, ride on sleighs pulled by puppies, and become a celebrity - all in the "in-between." Sure, the in-between seemed like an awesome place, but seriously, what was Susie doing there?

In the in-between, there was a small home beneath a lighthouse (what did the lighthouse represent? Who knows? The writers had the chance to form a lot of symbolism. They failed.) and Susie said that if she ever entered that home, she would never come back. Well, you know what? She did enter the house? And you know what else? Suddenly we see her frolicking in the fields of dandelions again. Why, writers, why?

Lindsey, Susie's sister, enters the killer's house while he's not home and finds a journal, full of the killer's notes, that could finally convict him. She's upstairs, in his bedroom, reading the journal. The killer enters, and somehow, he can "hear" her turning the pages of this book. Not believable, writers. And, when the killer entered the house, Lindsey knew. Yet, she still continued to flip through the book, reading the killer's notes. No. Why didn't she run? GRR.

The killer finds her, but, alas, Lindsey managed to jump out a window and fall two stories below. She lies on the ground, very hurt. But when the killer comes out his front door, she's all ready to jump up and run. She hops over a 2-foot fence. The killer doesn't follow her. Instead, he goes back inside and starts packing his stuff. Why? Why can't the writers make it believable?

As if that wasn't enough, Lindsey runs back home with the journal. I expected her to spill inside, hurt, and tell her father what she found, and give him the journal. Finally, evidence! But, you know what happens instead? Their mother has just returned from a random absence (I think she ran away because Jack was becoming too obsessive with finding his daughter), and Jack gives her a huge hug. Meanwhile, Lindsey stands there, watches, and hides the journal behind her back. WTF? You have evidence! You know the killer is running away! What are you doing, lady?

But, Lindsey's grandmother comes and then Lindsey hands over the journal. But of course, by that time, the killer escapes.

Susie's been chillin' in the "in-between," still frolicking in those fields. There is a big tree in the in-between. What it represents? I don't know. It's kinda just there.

So, you remember that psychic girl I told you about? Well, she sees the killer throwing Susie's body in a huge ditch. She doesn't do anything. Instead, she tells her friend Ray (who was in love with Susie) that the killer "gives me the schievies" (sp?). When the psychic girl could have been doing something productive, like investigating the huge box Susie's body was in, she instead wants to stare out the window. So, Susie comes through that window and enters the girl's body. Then Ray comes and kisses her. Oh, how sweet. Well, you could be getting the killer right now. But instead, you have to kiss the guy? RAWR. No. This was one of the biggest plot interruptions in the entire movie. The movie spent like five minutes showing the killer rolling the box (it was more like a ginormous safe) towards the ditch, splattering mud each time it came down on the ground. And you know what happened? The killer rolled it into the ditch, and got away again, while Susie kissed this guy in the house nearby. Pathetic.

So, apparently years later - the killer looked aged by this point -, the killer tries to give a girl a ride home. They're by a diner that sits on a huge cliff. The girl rejects him three times, while he says he's "just trying to be polite."

Then, a three-inch icicle falls from a tree, hits the killer on the shoulder, and he falls over the cliff. He dies. *facepalm*

Then Susie, the narrator throughout the movie, tries to offer us some philosophical advice, which just made me even more angry. She said she never went to Heaven because she was waiting for her mother to return. First of all, Susie, you should have gone to Heaven when you entered the lighthouse. That was what you told the audience halfway through the movie. You lied. Second of all, why your mother? She wasn't important in the movie. She didn't do anything, except serve as a plot interruption when Lindsey found the killer's journal.



Like I said, the first half of the movie was fantastic. Great pacing, great suspense, great acting. The second half was the complete opposite. No closure.

Don't waste your money. If you really want to see it for yourself, wait until you can get it for $2.00 at the nearest video store, or when you can order it from Netflix, or even for $4.99 for 24 hours On Demand.

[Lilith]

I agree, the movie was great up until about an hour into it, then it just went to places that i was like WHAT?? I love how the movie th=ried to interpret heavem , but then it just i dont knwo. I agree do not waste your money, go watch WHAT DREAMS MAY COME muys=ch better movie about the afterlife

[Mutsie]

I will rate this movie after I've seen it! My sister and I am going to the Pre- premier this morning! She won tickets! The official release will be here Jan the 28th.
I'm really looking forward to this movie....

[Obyron]

I thought this movie had some problems, but I quite liked it overall. I think a lot of people are hating on it because they didn't get the Hollywood ending they wanted. It's a story about learning to see the beauty that can come out of tragedy, and about making a choice between doing what will make you feel better (avenging yourself) and doing what's right (letting the people you love have peace).

The book is mostly unadaptable in the time that a major studio movie can give it, but I thought Peter Jackson did a pretty good job. Like you, I think that the psychic girl could have used some more development. I also agree that the scene at the end where Stanley Tucci falls to his death after being struck by the Icicle of Righteous Smiting was laughable. I think I'm just willing to overlook a lot more.

One thing that's interesting though is that this movie draws very strong reactions from people. The ones who like it are willing to look past a lot of the bad and cherish what's good in it, and the ones who hate it do so with the fiery hate of rage.

[Fringified]

One thing that's interesting though is that this movie draws very strong reactions from people. The ones who like it are willing to look past a lot of the bad and cherish what's good in it, and the ones who hate it do so with the fiery hate of rage.

Good point I'm hating it with the fiery hate of rage because it had so much potential, and then epicly failed.

[D-Roc]

Thanks for the great review, Fringie. I agree with your assessment that the first half of the movie was good, but tapered off a little as things progressed.

[xofringe314]

So I just watched this movie with my friends, and I found it a bit illogical and annoying, to tell the truth, mostly because of the reasons Fringified said. Also, it annoyed me that Susie and that Ray guy barely knew each other. They had a five minute conversation and the next thing you know, Susie's convinced that it's true love, and Ray is still mourning MONTHS after Susie's death. My friend and I were shouting at the TV, "You didn't know her, idiot!!" I guess when you're around that age, you think everything's true love, but I'm around that age and I know better than that.
Also, the asian girl who Susie hung out with in Heaven, named Holly or whatever, was (unintentionally) hilarious. I'm sorry, but every time she opened her mouth, the entire room cracked up. (By the way, I'm not being racist since I am asian.)

Overall, it wasn't a very good movie, but I've seen worse.