There are some movies that are fine films, but for lack of time or opportunity you simply miss them. Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones is one such film, a film about the afterlife. As afterlife films go, this one charts a somewhat predictable path— prematurely dead person seeks to guide one or more of the living to her killer. It’s not Ghost, nor is it the Sixth Sense, nor is it Poltergeist, but this movie is effective in its own way. Here is the summary of the film.
“Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is just experiencing the pangs of first love when she’s viciously murdered by her neighbor Mr. Harvey (Stanley Tucci), a predatory wolf with a deceptively mundane appearance. As her family slowly begins drifting apart while struggling to make sense of their loss, Susie bravely attempts to find her footing in the hereafter. Meanwhile, down on earth, Mr. Harvey is feeling confident that he’s covered his tracks well enough to get away with the crime, and begins honing in on his next victim — Susie’s younger sister, Lindsey (Rose McIver), who’s beginning to suspect that he’s not the harmless suburbanite he portrays himself to be. Director Peter Jackson reteams with King Kong and Lord of the Rings trilogy co-screenwriters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh to adapt Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel for the big screen.”
The film is longish by modern standards ( 2 hours and 16 minutes) and comes across as more of a crime thriller or even a horror flick rather than a heart-warming story about how the afterlife is better than this one. Most of all it explores the familiar notion that those who die untimely deaths or violent deaths hang around the living and earth for a while at least, before going on to their eternal destination (in this film described as heaven).
For the record, I think there is something to this line of reasoning. Take for instance the famous case of the spirit of the recently departed C.S. Lewis appearing to J.B. Phillips with some pertinent information to convey. Or I could tell you the story of a woman in my church who made a 20 minute phone call to one of her best friends who lived just across the street from me. It was definitely a long distance call, as it was made 2 hours after she was dead, in the morgue, and nowhere near a phone. I agree with Muir who says (I’m paraphrasing) “we look at life from the back side of the tapestry and what we normally see is loose ends, dangling threads. But occasionally the light shines through the tapestry and we get a glimpse of life’s larger design and how it is woven together.” There’s just a lot we do not know about the life to come, and that is probably a good thing.
The performances of Stanley Tucci as the predator is suitably creepy, and that of Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon in smaller roles quite good. The focus however is on children, children who die prematurely, so as you might imagine in various ways this film was hard for me to watch, especially when we are told “but what the murderer had not counted on is that the love of a father goes on beyond the grave and will not give up”. Well at that point, I was all tears and could really relate to Mark’s character.
The film is set in 1973, before the age of cellphones which probably, on the good side, have protected a lot of children from predators these days. There are scenes from the afterlife of remarkable beauty, but there are also dark scenes as well. I do not recommend this film for children under high school age. It is in some ways too dark and frightening. But it is also a film of redeeming merit, showing how people can get beyond a tragic loss and also showing that the dead are still living, and often in a better place. And I for one needed to be reassured such things are possible. Thank you Mr. Jackson.
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