http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380510/

Wow I thought public Enemies was a disappointment. This was just bad. The Lovely Bones is one of the most emotionally hollow and lifeless films I have seen in years. I am amazed that Peter Jackson directed this piece of crap. I am not a huge fan of the book to begin with, but it was pretty good and it had some interesting ideas and characters even if it was nowhere near as good as something like What Dreams may come by Richard Matheson. This was literally painful to watch at times. It was like a lifetime original movie but with better effects. It starts off in an interesting way and it shows all the characters that need to be shown. It even throws in a cute romance element without any background or reason to care, but hey there is still a chance for something interesting to happen. The only good thing about this film aside from the ridiculously overdone special effects is the acting. Saoirse Ronan is remarkable here as Susie Salmon. I can't think of anyone else who could have done it better than her. She really tries her hardest to bring life and soul to her character. Marh Wahlberg is surprisingly fantastic too. You can really feel his grief and frustration with the police when his daughter dies. Rachel Weisz is good as usual and Stanley Tucci is great at being weird and creepy. The rest of the film though is complete crap. The idea is good, little girl dies and watches as her family tries to go on without her. This could have turned into one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful films of the year, but instead Peter Jacksons decided to show off with his damn special effects. He treats the death of a child with the understanding of a mentally challenged infant. The death of a child is one of the most tragic and terrible things that can happen to a family, we expect to see tears and heartbreak and family trauma. We expect to see people lose it and lives be torn apart. Instead though we get to see a little girl dancing around a stupid CGI paradise that changes from a lush green field to a ridiculous looking giant record player that Susie and her boring friend dance on. It's almost as if Jackson can't handle the emotional heartbreak of a child's death, so he tries to distract us with pretty things that I couldn't care less about.

They look quite nice at times though so he can take some comfort in knowing that his pretty CGI effects look better than the tragedy of a child's death. Congratulations Peter Jackson, you can make pretty things you heartless prick Susan Sarandon was also in it as the pointless comic relief. She is one of the most wasted characters in the film. She appears every now and then smoking and getting into comic situations like setting food on fire, falling asleep smoking, and dancing with a small child while suds pour out of the laundry machine she is trying to use. I understand that these scenes are meant to lighten the mood and show that she brings some heart to the film, but she doesn't change anything because everyone in the film acts exactly the same as before. Jackson has an odd fascination with the man who killed Susie. Not only does he look like an ex porn star, but Jackson wastes time showing him moving around his house acting like a creepy person and building a dollhouse. Eventually even he gets bored and decides to kill Susie's sister. Why? Shut up thats why. It would have been interesting to go into this guy's mind to see why he does these things, but instead he just does them for the sake of the plot. Eventually Susie's dad becomes paranoid and starts accusing everyone of killing his daughter. He figures out that the guy next door did, but only because Susie can somehow communicate with him from beyond the grave. I am almost disturbed that Peter Jackson finds a serial killer's life more important that family trauama. He turns what could have been a magnificant family drama into a poorly done mystery film without the mystery. We know this guy killed Susie, we don't need the rest of the film to be dedicated to the Dad and Susie's sister finding out why. There is no mystery or tension there. Oh yeah and the mom leaves too, which seems to an effect equal to poking the characters with a marshmallow. Not only is this the most disappointing film of the year, but it is also one of the worst and cheesiest. Peter Jackson is a good director, which is why it is almost depressing that he would make a film this bad. The film just went on and on, I got so bored I considered turning it off. This is not a film I recommend, and I try and find the good parts of all films.

Overall I give it a 2 out of 10.