The Lovely Bones
Although the novel also drowned in a vat of syrup, Sebold got by for nearly 100 pages on the unsentimental clarity of her style and sustained verisimilitude of the narrator’s adolescent voice. Jackson demonstrates no such chops. Indeed, he consistently undermines the movie’s uncanny elements by over-dramatizing events, such as Susie’s fleeting visitations, that have their own inherent power.
— J. Hoberman, Village Voice, 8 December 2009
I didn’t expect much better from an adaptation of The Lovely Bones, a book I liked, but did not love. A dead protagonist is a bold move, and I salute it, but you have to know that the meter on that arc is running; you can’t be dicking around in your own bellybutton with two dozen set pieces on grief as a function of time.
Sebold turned out beautiful, bracing passages as well, but the In-Between took up too much real estate in the book, and the temptation to literalize those sections — to fetishize them, really, with lavish color palettes and twinkly strings — proves too much for Peter Jackson. His direction amplifies the negatives of the book, which in turn crowds the positives of the movie (solid acting; suspenseful sequences with a nifty emphasis on the sound design) into too small a space.
Stanley Tucci is very good as Mr. Harvey, very contained and believable. Mark Wahlberg is also strong, and I really felt for him during that realization sequence when Jackson ran back the rosebush flashback 78 more times in case we didn’t get it yet and Wahlberg had to make tragedy-mask faces for about a month. Susan Sarandon has amazing hair, but her own deft character arc gets shoved into a tiny corner of a single scene so that precious close-ups of icicles can take center stage. Those performances and people are the core of the story, not whether Jackson’s CGI team can turn a cornfield into a rolling sea.
Point missed. Movie should be too.
Death Race 34, Sarah 24; 6 out of just get the knife out of the ham and stick it in my haaahhhhht
Tags: Alice Sebold J. Hoberman Mark Wahlberg movies Oscars 2010 Death Race Peter Jackson Stanley Tucci Susan Sarandon
“Mark Wahlberg is also strong, and I really felt for him during that realization sequence when Jackson ran back the rosebush flashback 78 more times in case we didn’t get it yet and Wahlberg had to make tragedy-mask faces for about a month.”
HEE. (About making the face for a month, not about the plot in generally.)
Yet another book I chose not to read – I am such a wimp.
Roger Ebert’s incredible smackdown of this one is not to be missed:
http://tinyurl.com/yf3jvtk
I absolutely loved this book. Alice Sebold can write like an arrow into your heart, I love her stuff. (Her newest creeped me right the hell out, though. Poison arrows, that one.) I suspected this movie wouldn’t generate the same love as the book, that Jackson wouldn’t be able to step out of the picture long enough to let an excellent cast do thier best.
“Liked but didn’t love” completely sums up my feelings about the book. There had been just SO much hype when I finally read it; nothing could measure up.
I remember a reviewer talking about another movie and saying that “For directors trying to get an audience reaction, killing a child character is like crack cocaine: quick, cheap, and dirty.” I think that applies to “The Lovely Bones” as well. My sister read the book on the plane and then handed it off to me with the warning that “The first chapter is tough to get through, but then it gets a lot easier.” Silly me; I thought she meant the first chapter was BORING.
I have pretty low standards as far as movies go, I can usually find something to like. But this was utter crap. Stanley Tucci was excellent but that’s about all the good I can say. The stuff that was cut out in favor of showing more of the in-between infuriated me, there were entire subplots the removal of which made the earthbound scenes incredibly confusing and pointless. I can’t imagine how annoying this movie must’ve been for someone who didn’t read the book.
“Those performances and people are the core of the story, not whether Jackson’s CGI team can turn a cornfield into a rolling sea.”
Seconded. I hate Peter Jackson because, from LOTR on, this is his sole m.o.
Best line from that Ebert review: “It’s based on the best-seller by Alice Sebold that everybody seemed to be reading a couple of years ago. I hope it’s not faithful to the book; if it is, millions of Americans are scary.”
I haaaaaated the book, but since it was recommended (both here, and before I read it) by reliable sources, I have to assume I got a whiff of something schmaltzy or cynical and then read the rest of the story frowning, with my arms crossed. I’m an angry reader.
Oh man, I cannot bring myself to see this one, nor can I bring myself to re-read the book. I noticed that ever since I had my daughter, anything that smacks of Bad Things Happening to Wee Kids is way way way over my comfort limit (see also: Changeling, Deep End of the Ocean, etc). I didn’t love the book, but I didn’t hate it either. Maybe in 30 years or so I’ll be able to re-read it and see what I think.
All that aside, I have so much trouble with Mark Wahlberg as A Serious Actor. He just looks like a ferret to me, and because I came of age in the early ’90s, he will always be the fearless, pants-dropping leader of The Funky Bunch.
Ohhh, Marky Mark. I’m glad you said that, Rachel, because…not havin’ any. I will always believe that Burton cast him in that “Planet of the Apes” thing as a cruel joke, given that he looks more simian than the made-up cast members.
I still haven’t forgiven Weisz for “The Fountain”. Well, her, Jackman and Aronofsky. She could make a movie about me, shot in my front yard, and I’d still be pissed off at her for that ponderous wank.
I…barely even remember the book (even though I know for a fact I read it – I keep a nerdy list of the books I’ve read), so that doesn’t bode well for me jumping in line to rent the movie.
I think I’ll be passing on this one.
My reason for not reading the novel was that it was recommended to me by an UNreliable source. You know, that one friend who’s a nice person but has cosmically horrible taste in literature, and once in a while tries to press something into your hands that you suspect you’ll hate, so you say, “I have quite a pile of unread books right now, but I’ll keep the title in mind. [to NOT READ, EVER. HA! HA!]”
I may see the movie someday if I come across it on TV. It has so many people I really like in it, and from the clips I’ve seen, they do their damnedest to put the material across. It might be worth the time just for that, if it’s free. I’m glad to see Saoirse Ronan getting these high-profile parts. You never know what will happen with younger actors, but she made such a strong impression in Atonement.
@Hannah, yes that line is killer, but the opener to the Ebert review is also perfect:
“‘The Lovely Bones’ is a deplorable film with this message: If you’re a 14-year-old girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, you have a lot to look forward to.”
I just recently read the book (and liked it, but probably not as much as the hype thinks I should), and haven’t seen the movie, but I kept thinking at least one thing about the movie: that Susan Sarandon was immaculately cast. Every time Grandma Lynn popped up, I kept thinking Sarandon was only too, too perfect an actress for the role.
I can’t picture Stanley Tucci as Mr. Harvey, though. Perhaps it’s not a fair criticism to make of Sebold, but I think antagonists should have some dimension, which is not the same thing as making them redeemable. Sebold took about 3 minutes midway through the book to hint at what may have made him tick before going straight back to Baddy McMurderson. I think Tucci deserves better than that.
I may just be squeamish, but the only thing I remember from the book is the generally *icky* feeling it left me with. That and thinking that I didn’t get anything out of it to have made the ickiness worth it.
So, yeah: pass on the movie.
@ Rachel – “All that aside, I have so much trouble with Mark Wahlberg as A Serious Actor. He just looks like a ferret to me, and because I came of age in the early ’90s, he will always be the fearless, pants-dropping leader of The Funky Bunch.”
HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Same here! Except I thought he was hot for a while. But I got over it. :)
@ Todd K – “You know, that one friend who’s a nice person but has cosmically horrible taste in literature, and once in a while tries to press something into your hands that you suspect you’ll hate, so you say, “I have quite a pile of unread books right now, but I’ll keep the title in mind. [to NOT READ, EVER. HA! HA!]””
NICE. And yes, definitely have those friends. And no, I will NOT be reading anything by Nicholas Sparks, anything regarding vampires and their various emotional issues, anything with “The Cat Who … ” in the title, etc. (This is not to put down anyone who likes those things. I just personally can’t abide them.)
re Ebert: everyone’s read the Esquire profile of him, right? And then his blog responses? Ebert = Awesome, and I mean that less in the sense of “cool” than of “impressive.”
There was also a takedown of the Lovely Bones book in the New York Review of Books, but I think it’s under their pay barrier now. Yeah, Daniel Mendelsohn did it.
@Jessica, that’s a bummer, because I’d love to read that review. When the movie first came out in limited release and the reviews weren’t that great, I wasn’t surprised because … it wasn’t that great a book. It really couldn’t decide what type of story it wanted to be – mystery/thriller, family melodrama, unearthly fantasy – and I couldn’t imagine any film maker not having the exact same problem.
I don’t think it speaks very well of me, but I read something about how some fans were upset that the brutal rape scene was removed from the movie when it was such an essential part of the book – all I could think was, “wait, there was a brutal rape scene?” Yeah, nothing in that book stuck with me at all.
Sars-
I know this Oscar project is probably taking up a ton of your time, but I totally love it. I am finding myself checking TN every day for the update and I feel like this will genuinely enhance my enjoyment of the Oscars this year. Thanks, and please consider more movie reviews. I love getting ideas for the stale old netflix queue.
@Carrie: Thanks! I am pleased to say that, following tonight’s short program at IFC, I will have pulled ahead in the Death Race, AND I just polished off a category this afternoon FINALLY. So, there is hope.
Also, I owe you guys a Serpico review. Soon.
Like Carrie, I’m really loving this behemoth Oscar project, the more so since I have no chance of doing anything like it on such a daunting schedule or scale. Oh, and the second tag here? Makes me howl with laughter. Thanks for that.