Let's take a short look at Peter Jackson's short but extremely impressive track record: Director of the now historic Lord of the Rings series: fictional, fantasy, action-adventure, critically acclaimed; King Kong: fictional, fantasy, action-adventure, critically acclaimed; the future Hobbit 1 and 2: fictional, fantasy, action-adventure, already critically acclaimed; and... The Lovely Bones: drama, little-know, and certainly not critically acclaimed. Surprisingly, Jackson still delivers excellently in this new medium.
It's an understatement to say that this was a good movie. In fact, I enjoyed this movie more than any movie I've seen in a very long time. It was excellently, excellently shot, extremely creative, and intriguing to say the least.
Where to begin.... the story: This movie deals with some tough, brutal issues. It is based around a man who traps, rapes, and kills girls, hides the bodies, and moves to a different state every time someone gets hot on his trail. Although these subjects are dealt with very appropriately and maturely, they are not present in the least bit lightly. It's hardly a spoiler to reveal that the main character is, in fact, dead for almost the entire movie. The movie seems to be loosely based around her family attempting to find her murderer while she is in her own world "Between Heaven and Earth" filled with imagery from the real world. But, not surprisingly, there are no happy endings when the main character has already met her death.
The presentation of the movie is astoundingly well done, with massive use of imagery, sometimes confusing, but often very clever. In Susie Salmon's (The main character) "in between", the entire world is made of memories from her life, sometimes intertwined with what is happening in the real world. When her distraught father begins breaking bottles with ships inside of them (an obsession of the father brought up earlier in the movie), giant bottles with real-life ships begin to float and crash on her virtual ocean, with an astounding emotional effect. in fact, almost every aspect of her in between world is based around the real world.
But there's more to this movie than imagery and a good story: it comes equipped with a huge emotional force that I was not expecting from Jackson. Usually not an emotional moviegoer, I was moved by this story, and almost felt the characters desperation, frustration, fear, and unrest. I'm certainly not one to frequent the Drama genre, but this is one of the most powerfully emotional movies I have ever seen.
The only flaw with this movie would have to be the ending. I suppose it's the happiest possible ending for a movie where the main character has been raped, murdered, and stuffed into a safe in the first 15 minutes, but it left just a little to be lacking. While her family learns to cope with the loss after over 2 years, her sister avoids being caught by the same man, and the molester dies a brutally harsh death by falling down a cliff, I (the audience) cannot quite feel relief or a sense of completion.
On the whole, this was an most excellent film, and excites me to see what Jackson will do with his upcoming Hobbit movies. This movie left very little to be lacking, and certainly left me agape, moved, and, most importantly, satisfied. This movie comes with a very high personal recommendation from me to you.... so what are you waiting for? go see The Lovely bones while it is still in theaters!
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