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Thursday, May 5, 2011

"The Lovely Bones", Peter Jackson without hobbits is...

The Lovely Bones

...Even worse than usual (yes, not a fan of "Lord of the Rings" either, very far from it). It's hard to decide where to begin, as "The Lovely Bones" is a pretty indigestible amount of mistakes. Surprisingly huge mistakes.

I haven't read the book from Alice Sebold, but I can easily adventure myself (you can see there are numerous complaints about it too) saying that Peter Jackson didn't pay a lot of respect to it. Why? Because there are only two options: or the plot is so badly written that nothing really makes sense, or the film has a shockingly serious problem with edition. Well, there's a third option. Both options are correct.

Not even a good cast, who try relentlessly to do something with the material they have, can save the film from total disaster. Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg are convincing being the desperate fathers seeking/longing for her disappeared/murdered daughter, but only from time to time, when Peter Jackson remembers he is directing a supposedly compelling drama/thriller and not a Disney-goes-creepy (or at least on drugs) one, making the relation between the couple completely unbelievable. Stanley Tucci, Mr. Wilson, is solid portraying the serial killer, but his problem is Jackson again, who doesn't know what to do with him, then overuses him, then... (I won't reveal it, but it is so weak). Even Saoirse Ronan, who does wonders with her role as Susie Salmon, is just wasted after she's dead, spending too much time doing nothing in the digital world designed as her way to heaven, which is just a luxurious excuse to satisfy Jackson obsessions with CGI (because it doesn't a real function for the development of the film, just kills its rhythm). And special mention has to be made to the horrendous, totally out of place character of the grandma, played by Susan Sarandon.

But there's plenty more to add. Jackson switches the point of view so many times we get seriously confused, something that is particularly embarrassing with the evolution of time on the film. We "loose" many characters during the development of the film, characters that at some point (or at least in some scene) seemed to be important: Ray, Ruth, Buckley, the policeman....  they disappear and, in some cases, when they are back into scene, are supposed to be crucial for the resolution of the film... Which bring us to the end of the film that I, of course, won't spoil it. But just let me say the amount of sappiness, blandness and incongruousness is going to be hard to match in a long time. "The Lovely Bones" is a complete nightmare of a movie, painful to watch.

SCORE: 1,75/10

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