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Review: The Lovely Bones (2009)
I...wasn't exactly sure what I'd watched. I was expecting a thriller, but this story tried to go the more spiritual route about seeing how people move on from grief, but it also didn't really fulfill that aspect of the story that well.
I will say that Saoirse Ronan did a good job. She was only 14 or 15 years old and her character was so emotive.
But I wouldn't recommend this movie as anything other than a popcorn flick that wasn't too deep.
Spoilers.
Story
I thought that the beginning of the movie was interesting. We found out that she was murdered very early on in the movie, so the beginning was more about getting to know her.
I thought the rest of the movie would cover how Jack and Lindsey were able to track down George Harvey, but that was a very small part. We saw the Salmon family go through troubles, but I didn't think that they were done in a particularly meaningful way. We didn't see how Susie's death actually affected the family's mental state, other than Susie's mom going away and then miraculously coming back when she was ready, showing a family that was ready to heal.
Susie came back in Ruth's body for a quick moment in which she finally got to kiss Ray. I don't know if we were supposed to expect Ruth and Ray to end up in a romantic relationship though.
The weirdest part had to be all of George Harvey's victims gathering in one place and going to heaven together. I'm not sure that all of the victims would've found peace in creating a social club that linked them together by their murderer. That part really bothered me because it felt so out of place and just not right.
George Harvey was not caught by the authorities, but he fell to his death, implying that he got what was coming to him.
I suppose I expected too much thrill from this movie that was supposed to be an emotional drama, but even from that standpoint, this story was way too shallow to do a good job in eliciting a sense of satisfaction.
Production
As I mentioned, the acting was pretty good from Saoirse Ronan. Not that everyone else was bad, but I don't think our other characters got enough to work with. Except maybe Stanley Tucci as George Harvey.
Characters
Susie Salmon
For the first part of the movie, Susie narrated what had happened to her, about the kind of life she was leading up until her murder. This part of the movie was fine and charming.
The next part of the movie was about Susie coming to terms with her death. She was in purgatory and couldn't go to heaven yet because she still had unfinished business on earth. She repeatedly went back to her family to let them know she was watching over them, and it worked for her dad and her little brother, but didn't work at all for her mom.
Otherwise, Susie mostly took on a passive role. She didn't help her sister hunt down George Harvey. She didn't exactly get Ruth and Ray to become friends (it was just that Ruth found the love poem).
Susie befriending Holly and having fun in purgatory was very strange. I'm not sure how it came to be that they had fun and became best friends, because it didn't exactly fit with the fact that during the movie, Susie was still worried about the wellbeing of her family and friends. She'd be having fun with Holly one second and then longingly watch her family the next.
I think Susie found peace when her killer was caught, her family was whole again, and when she finally got to reconcile with Ray.
I think I mostly had an issue with Susie's character after her death. I think it might've worked better if she was just a narrator. Seeing her living in purgatory and suddenly realizing that George Harvey was a serial killer just felt out of place. I think it would've worked better seeing the living discover George Harvey's history as opposed to Susie just realizing it.
Saoirse Ronan was a terrific actor, but as I dicussed, her character just wasn't used in a way that fit with the story that well.
George Harvey
He was a serial killer who had planned to kill Susie Salmon. His character wasn't really given that much depth except that he was meticulous and had a craving for killing. He'd fled when Lindsey found evidence pinning the crime on him. However, he'd died by falling to his death.
I don't think this was a satisfying end for George Harvey because the Salmon family didn't necessarily get the closure they needed. I suppose George Harvey got what was coming to him, and it was implied that Susie and others in purgatory caused George to fall down, but it was a really cheesey way of delivering karma.
Jack Salmon
Jack had a special relationship with Susie, and after Susie died, he tried to cope by doing investigations of his own. At first, Susie encouraged this, but his anger later led him to trouble, when he was beaten nearly to death in the cornfield.
I think the anger had grown out of control especially because Abigail had left and there was no one to moderate his behaviour. Jack cooled off again when Abigail came back, and that was also the time that Lindsey had found Harvey's notebook.
Abigail Salmon
Abigail's grief was eating away at her, but it wasn't really shown other than that one time Jack was speaking obsessively to Len and Abigail told him to stop. Next thing we know, Grandma Lynn came to take care of the household because apparently Abigail wasn't doing a good job. It was implied that the relationship had completely broken down (though we only saw evidence in the form of that one conversation), and I guess she wasn't taking care of the household either (again, not shown on screen).
Abigail coped by leaving the house and working on a farm, and one day, she came back home. If this story was about a family coming together after grief, I think it would've been worthwhile for Susie to spent more time talking about her mom. Susie always seemed closer to her dad than her mom, but it seemed unfair for her to rarely watch over her mom as she did for her dad.
Susie said that she was always waiting for her mom to come into her room, so perhaps Abigail was actually completely emotionally closed off to Susie. But I think there would have been better ways to show that other than literally not showing Abigail on screen for much of the movie.
Grandma Lynn
Grandma Lynn was supposed to be "wine grandma" who wasn't a great influence but knew how to live life with little worry. I thought her character was pretty interesting, but she had little to do in the movie other than to show how Abigail and Jack's relationship was apparently breaking down, and for a little "comedic relief."
Lindsey Salmon
Like Jack, Lindsey was a little more goal-oriented and wanted to find Susie's killer. She did the actual work in snooping around George Harvey's house (whereas Jack only had intuition to rely on).
Lindsey also represented what Susie was missing out on in life, with regards to romance. Susie saw Lindsey get a boyfriend, and eventually start a family with him. I'm not sure about the timelines here, but I think I'm just supposed to let it go.
Len Fenerman
Like nearly every movie cop, Len was not very helpful to the family, who accused him of not having done any work on Susie's file.
Ray Singh
Ray was Susie's first love. I think one of the things that kept Susie from leaving purgatory was that she hadn't had her first kiss yet. I felt like the movie would've worked just as well without this entire romantic subplot, seeing as how the family subplot was already a bit underdeveloped.
Also, I took a look at Ray's actor, and he was 8 years older than Saoirse Ronan. So apparently he was a 22 year old kissing a 14 year old in that last scene???? Suspect...
Ruth Connors
I thought that Ruth would've had a bigger role in this movie seeing as how she had a connection to the dead. Instead, she just ended up being a vessel for Susie to come back to the land of the living just one last time :/ Anyway, Ruth and Ray became friends after they bonded over poetry, which was nice I guess.
Overall
I felt there was potential for this story to be something more serious and more touching, but it ended up feeling very Hollywood and whitewashed to be a feel-good story, especially with the entire purgatory subplot.
This movie started off with promise, but it just got too cheesey for me to take it seriously again.
Again, I'd only recommend this as a movie that you don't need to watch very closely.
I will say that Saoirse Ronan did a good job. She was only 14 or 15 years old and her character was so emotive.
But I wouldn't recommend this movie as anything other than a popcorn flick that wasn't too deep.
Spoilers.
Story
I thought that the beginning of the movie was interesting. We found out that she was murdered very early on in the movie, so the beginning was more about getting to know her.
I thought the rest of the movie would cover how Jack and Lindsey were able to track down George Harvey, but that was a very small part. We saw the Salmon family go through troubles, but I didn't think that they were done in a particularly meaningful way. We didn't see how Susie's death actually affected the family's mental state, other than Susie's mom going away and then miraculously coming back when she was ready, showing a family that was ready to heal.
Susie came back in Ruth's body for a quick moment in which she finally got to kiss Ray. I don't know if we were supposed to expect Ruth and Ray to end up in a romantic relationship though.
The weirdest part had to be all of George Harvey's victims gathering in one place and going to heaven together. I'm not sure that all of the victims would've found peace in creating a social club that linked them together by their murderer. That part really bothered me because it felt so out of place and just not right.
George Harvey was not caught by the authorities, but he fell to his death, implying that he got what was coming to him.
I suppose I expected too much thrill from this movie that was supposed to be an emotional drama, but even from that standpoint, this story was way too shallow to do a good job in eliciting a sense of satisfaction.
Production
As I mentioned, the acting was pretty good from Saoirse Ronan. Not that everyone else was bad, but I don't think our other characters got enough to work with. Except maybe Stanley Tucci as George Harvey.
Characters
Susie Salmon
For the first part of the movie, Susie narrated what had happened to her, about the kind of life she was leading up until her murder. This part of the movie was fine and charming.
The next part of the movie was about Susie coming to terms with her death. She was in purgatory and couldn't go to heaven yet because she still had unfinished business on earth. She repeatedly went back to her family to let them know she was watching over them, and it worked for her dad and her little brother, but didn't work at all for her mom.
Otherwise, Susie mostly took on a passive role. She didn't help her sister hunt down George Harvey. She didn't exactly get Ruth and Ray to become friends (it was just that Ruth found the love poem).
Susie befriending Holly and having fun in purgatory was very strange. I'm not sure how it came to be that they had fun and became best friends, because it didn't exactly fit with the fact that during the movie, Susie was still worried about the wellbeing of her family and friends. She'd be having fun with Holly one second and then longingly watch her family the next.
I think Susie found peace when her killer was caught, her family was whole again, and when she finally got to reconcile with Ray.
I think I mostly had an issue with Susie's character after her death. I think it might've worked better if she was just a narrator. Seeing her living in purgatory and suddenly realizing that George Harvey was a serial killer just felt out of place. I think it would've worked better seeing the living discover George Harvey's history as opposed to Susie just realizing it.
Saoirse Ronan was a terrific actor, but as I dicussed, her character just wasn't used in a way that fit with the story that well.
George Harvey
He was a serial killer who had planned to kill Susie Salmon. His character wasn't really given that much depth except that he was meticulous and had a craving for killing. He'd fled when Lindsey found evidence pinning the crime on him. However, he'd died by falling to his death.
I don't think this was a satisfying end for George Harvey because the Salmon family didn't necessarily get the closure they needed. I suppose George Harvey got what was coming to him, and it was implied that Susie and others in purgatory caused George to fall down, but it was a really cheesey way of delivering karma.
Jack Salmon
Jack had a special relationship with Susie, and after Susie died, he tried to cope by doing investigations of his own. At first, Susie encouraged this, but his anger later led him to trouble, when he was beaten nearly to death in the cornfield.
I think the anger had grown out of control especially because Abigail had left and there was no one to moderate his behaviour. Jack cooled off again when Abigail came back, and that was also the time that Lindsey had found Harvey's notebook.
Abigail Salmon
Abigail's grief was eating away at her, but it wasn't really shown other than that one time Jack was speaking obsessively to Len and Abigail told him to stop. Next thing we know, Grandma Lynn came to take care of the household because apparently Abigail wasn't doing a good job. It was implied that the relationship had completely broken down (though we only saw evidence in the form of that one conversation), and I guess she wasn't taking care of the household either (again, not shown on screen).
Abigail coped by leaving the house and working on a farm, and one day, she came back home. If this story was about a family coming together after grief, I think it would've been worthwhile for Susie to spent more time talking about her mom. Susie always seemed closer to her dad than her mom, but it seemed unfair for her to rarely watch over her mom as she did for her dad.
Susie said that she was always waiting for her mom to come into her room, so perhaps Abigail was actually completely emotionally closed off to Susie. But I think there would have been better ways to show that other than literally not showing Abigail on screen for much of the movie.
Grandma Lynn
Grandma Lynn was supposed to be "wine grandma" who wasn't a great influence but knew how to live life with little worry. I thought her character was pretty interesting, but she had little to do in the movie other than to show how Abigail and Jack's relationship was apparently breaking down, and for a little "comedic relief."
Lindsey Salmon
Like Jack, Lindsey was a little more goal-oriented and wanted to find Susie's killer. She did the actual work in snooping around George Harvey's house (whereas Jack only had intuition to rely on).
Lindsey also represented what Susie was missing out on in life, with regards to romance. Susie saw Lindsey get a boyfriend, and eventually start a family with him. I'm not sure about the timelines here, but I think I'm just supposed to let it go.
Len Fenerman
Like nearly every movie cop, Len was not very helpful to the family, who accused him of not having done any work on Susie's file.
Ray Singh
Ray was Susie's first love. I think one of the things that kept Susie from leaving purgatory was that she hadn't had her first kiss yet. I felt like the movie would've worked just as well without this entire romantic subplot, seeing as how the family subplot was already a bit underdeveloped.
Also, I took a look at Ray's actor, and he was 8 years older than Saoirse Ronan. So apparently he was a 22 year old kissing a 14 year old in that last scene???? Suspect...
Ruth Connors
I thought that Ruth would've had a bigger role in this movie seeing as how she had a connection to the dead. Instead, she just ended up being a vessel for Susie to come back to the land of the living just one last time :/ Anyway, Ruth and Ray became friends after they bonded over poetry, which was nice I guess.
Overall
I felt there was potential for this story to be something more serious and more touching, but it ended up feeling very Hollywood and whitewashed to be a feel-good story, especially with the entire purgatory subplot.
This movie started off with promise, but it just got too cheesey for me to take it seriously again.
Again, I'd only recommend this as a movie that you don't need to watch very closely.