The Lovely Bones

Set in 1973, Saoirse Ronan stars as Susie Salmon - a young high school girl who has a great life ahead of her. She is experiencing her first crush. She has a loving family. She's passionate about photography and shows some real potential. And, Susie is about to be brutally murdered by her next door neighbor, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci).

After her death, Susie finds herself in a strange, purgatory where she watches her family dealing with their grief, the attempts by her father, Jack (Mark "Don't Call Me Marky Mark" Wahlberg), to find her killer, and how it drives a wedge between him and her mother, Abigail (Rachel Weisz).

What is this place where Susie seems to be caught between life and death?

How does she effect the world she left behind?

Can Jack find the evidence he needs to help arrest and convict George?

The Lovely Bones is a movie with tons of possibilities, 3 or 4 awesome scenes, some great tension, and lots of filler. Director/co-writer Peter Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh and Philipa Boyens (based on the novel by Alice Sebold) are torn between making The Lovely Bones into a story about trying to bring a killer to justice and a mystical, ethereal story about death, tragedy and letting go. That story about a pursuit of justice has much more going for it.

While the audience is fully aware of who committed this crime, The Lovely Bones still has an amazing tension derived from our desire to see this horrific person captured and punished. Jackson makes the audience cringe as we see the inevitable start to unfold and anticipation gets the best of us. He has us on the edge of our seats as Jack and the family get closer and closer to the truth. Then, Jackson takes advantage of the greatly talented cast.

The Lovely Bones is a riveting, emotional movie as we watch Wahlberg put Jack's obsession front and center. He brings an intensity and desperation to the mournful father's actions that is heartbreaking and frightening. Then, Tucci makes George into one of the weirdest and creepiest villains. His performance almost borders on comical, but Tucci brings enough evil and focus to George to make it more chilling than goofy.

However, Jackson loses his way as he tries to highlight the more supernatural portions of the film. Much of The Lovely Bones follows Susie's journey from death to the next life, but it only distracts us from the movie's best stuff. These segments are long and very artsy without much purpose as they drag and drag to a revelation that should have more shock and impact. Then, Susan Sarandon shows up in an ill conceived comic relief role (but has a couple moments that make you LOVE Susan Sarandon like you are a 31-year old ping pong magnate).

The Lovely Bones feels ambitious, but without the proper focus.

The Lovely Bones is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.