THE LOVELY BONES

The reason why The Lovely Bones as a film connects emotionally with you is because of actress Saoirse Ronan as young teen Susie Salmon. And this occurs in a film studded with other well-known actors such as Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci who himself does his first non-clichéd performance in at least a decade (he’s that bald, hardnosed and snobby character actor). The young Ronan is a 15-year old actress who was nominated for “Atonement,” an overrated film I do not care to remember strongly. After “Lovely Bones,” I care to remember both her and the film strongly.

Set in suburban Pennsylvania in 1973, Susie is just a normal girl just beginning that phase of teenage life where passages of interest start to happen. The stuff before is just dollhouse stuff. She loves bicycling. She loves playing with her camera. She loves boys, particularly one. Father and mother (Wahlberg and Weisz) are variably supportive of her, and the sister (Rose McIver) is naturally competitive.

The pedigree source material is Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel from 2002. This is the story of a young teen whose life is tragically cut short, before Susie ever experienced her first kiss – and she was close to achieving that. With Ronan’s open-face and expressive eyes, you feel connected (and protective) over her within the first few frames. That makes the tragedy all the more wrenching. She falls into the hands of an unassuming neighbor who is a serial killer. He is played by Tucci, who is so absorbed in character, that you think you were looking at actor Peter Stormare.

In the aftermath, we see Susie stuck in confusion between Earth and Heaven. For a few breathless moments, Susie is disoriented what has happened to her (the murder takes place off-screen), and we’re enrapt in her fragility of how she will brace with the concept that she is now a spirit. She can’t let go of the life behind her, and in subtle moments, makes ghostly reappearances in her family’s home. She observes that Dad cannot forget or give up, Mom is stuck in depression, and a sister she feels the need to be protective over. She wants want Dad wants: her murderer.

Ghostly images, as conceived by Peter Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings”), are so evocative that it sends shivers up your spine. But as Susie settles in the afterlife, it becomes a playground. The heaven’s gate, if you may, is Jackson’s creation and liberal adaptation from the book, and it has a fantastic Oz-quality. These visuals work because they feel invoked by Susie’s own subconscious, it’s her childlike creations. Jackson works up an extraordinary rhythm with these scenes, it’s like when music is so lush that you are carried away on air.

It’s unfortunate that Jackson breaks up this rhythm, with distracting business with Sarandon’s character, a grandmother who smokes up a storm and overloads the washing machine, as seen in a useless montage. Sarandon has never been a nuisance before, but the entire character is an unnecessary plot device. As the grieving parents, Wahlberg’s character is a much more convincing portrait than Weisz’s – she is a mom that can’t hack it so she walks out on the family.

Further unnecessary plot contrivances involve a beating by a baseball bat and penultimate natural justice that reeks of contrivance. There is a break-in however into George Harvey’s home, the serial killer, which is orchestrated with breathless suspense. There are other moments where characters can feel Susie somehow hovering amongst them. Susie, a girl whose essence illuminates the traits of innocence, benevolence and harmony.

For some reason the Academy does not promote girls who are 15-years old as Best Actress. They are shoehorned into that other category called Best Supporting Actress, even if Saoirse Ronan is the central heart of the film. If that shall be the case, then Ronan will be undervalued. Rest assured though that we will likely see much more of this talented and natural young actress in the future.

Go to the official site http://www.lovelybones.com/

Grade: B+