The Lovely Bones is the story of a murdered girl grieving her own death and the emotional struggle of her family after her vanishing. It is, above all, a story of sadness, guilt, resentment, and redemption by forgiveness and letting go.
Jackson focused on two aspects of the book to develop his movie. 1/ the murder investigation, and 2/ the recreation of the limbo, or pseudo-heaven, in which the girl stays. By doing so, he's forgetting the core of the book, what makes it so meaningful and memorable.
The thriller occupies a minor part in the book, while the grieving of the family, the despair, sadness, uncertainty, pain, love, hatred, forgiveness and self-forgiveness is what matters. In fact the issue of who's the murderer is directly avoided in the book from the beginning, and the name and face of the murderer do not appear until midway the novel. However, if Jackson wanted to create a thriller, why did he decide to show who the murderer is from almost the beginning of the film? The thriller is killed before starting! I really do not see the point.
Jackson has recreated limbo-heaven with great detail, awesome images and creativity. It looks gorgeous. However, all of that was unnecessary, since the limbo is barely drawn (narratively speaking) in the book, as what matters in the book is the story of the emotions. There are too many special effects and not enough lyric emotion or character drawing in the movie, too.
The acting is very good, by both adult and young actors. I loved young talented Saoirse Ronan, whose face transmits great lyricism and performs with great conviction her role. Susan Sarandon makes a terrific quirky drunk Grandma. Rachel Weisz is good, too, but she doesn't play her role with the intensity and conviction with which Mark Wahlberg plays his role of father and husband. Stanley Tucci is also terrific and the weird neighbour.
Jackson adapted The Lord of the Rings superbly, so I was expecting another superb adaptation. This is not the case here. The movie does not honour the book, its spirit and depth. Still, this is a beautifully filmed well-acted movie, with a great script and stunning visuals.
