The Lovely Bones (2009)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Abigail Salmon	Rachel Weisz	½
Jack Salmon	Mark Wahlberg
George Harvey	Stanley Tucci	½
Susie Salmon	Saoirse Ronan	½
Grandma Lynn	Susan Sarandon	½
Brian Nelson	Jake Abel

Review

Questionable is not a word strong enough to describe the moral and message the extremely pretentious The Lovely Bones delivers; it is downright preposterous - adhering to a transcendental religious thinking with a lack of criticism that reminds me of Sunday school doctrines. Exactly what the often great filmmaker Peter Jackson wants to do here, besides create a pompous, universal masterpiece, is hard to say. What is certain is that he tells us that we shouldn't fear death (or even being mutilated and murdered), because the ethereal existence which comes after is so much better and uplifting. And it doesn't matter that our family are left bereaved, as long as you know that you love them and can watch them from above. "Heaven" is presented in such a hallucinatory, wondrous and Teletubbish manner that it's as if Jackson urges us to go there sooner rather than later. The overdone visuals take complete precedence and overshadow what might have been an interesting story about death and mourning, and in the process we're left deprived of logic and empathy. The beautiful Saoirse Ronan is defenceless against Jackson's hollow mockery and his insults on the earthly life. You have to be quite irrational or drugged up to enjoy this movie.