Anyone else see The Lovely Bones?
I felt that 2/3rds of it were pretty fantastic. The beginning act and the last act. The middle section of the film suffers from Markie Mark's weird acting that seems to be ripped right from The Happening. I don't know what's the deal with this dude. He's done a pretty good a job in other movies but his acting here is just so overdone. Every line seems to be a few notches above what it should. Scenes that are meant to be sad are a little silly because Markie is wide-eye'd and confused. The reason this hurts the middle section is because it's almost entirely about him. The film shifts it's focus from Susie Salmon to her father, to finally her sister. Markie's section is mostly about him trying to do his own detective work and it becomes a very cliche "parent trying to prove everyone wrong" story. I didn't think it worked.
The first act of the movie was my favorite. It's incredibly tense because you know what going to happen to this girl and all of this cheeriness is for naught. When the moment finally came, my heart was pounding and when the moment passed I felt a pit in my stomach. In fact when I think back over the entire movie I still feel that pit in my stomach because when taken on it's own without context, all the stunning imagery and what not is truly beautiful. But when you put it all in context, it's so tragically sad. There' a scene near end in particular:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Susie meets with a group of girls as they guide her to the other side. It's such a pretty scene until you really understand. Everyone in this scene was brutally raped and murdered.
Most of what brings this movie up is Susie's story, obviously. A lot of the side stuff could have been dropped or condensed to make room for more of her journey through the afterlife and I would have been much happier. In a sense I would have preferred something more like What Dreams May Come in terms of afterlife/real world ratio.
In the end
Saoirse Ronan
