The Lovely Bones Movie Review

Lovely bones 2.9- The movie

TEXT TYPE: MOVIE

Ellesse Andrews

The movie, The Lovely Bones, originally written by Alice Sebold, and directed by Peter Jackson, tells the tale of the horrific homicide of 14-year-old Suzie Salmon. The movie follows Suzie before, and after her death, in her quest to reveal the identity of her killer, and aid in reducing the grievance of her family. She was only 14 years of age when she was murdered, as similar age to many of the target audience, such as my little sister, also only 13 years of age. To think this was around the age Suzie was when she was murdered is appalling. This little girl, still with her whole life ahead of her, things to experience, and things she was looking forward to inflicts a strong feeling

During this murder scene, we saw Suzie being approached by her future killer, and lured into the “structure” he had built for the children in the neighbourhood. Following this, the audience sees Suzie growing uncomfortable in the presence of the man, in the underground hut. When it comes to her actual death, the director only shows Suzie being denied the ability to leave, twice, by the killer, before she escapes and runs away into the field. We then see Suzie stumbling along the street, but only her figure is slightly opaque and misty like (attempting to portray Suzie with a ghost like presence). To me, this felt confusing at first, and I felt I needed closure that Suzie was actually murdered. This may have been intentional by the director to make the film still appropriate to younger viewers, but I personally would have shot it differently, and added slightly more clarity as to how she had died.

Overall, I think the movie The Lovely Bones, is a great watch. It made me really consider the fact that people such as Suzie’s killer, do exist outside of a TV screen, in the real world. This situation isn’t a rare one, and it shone light onto the fact that bad things can happen to anyone in society, even the most kind and innocent of people (Like Suzie). Even though there were minor aspects I would have changed, or done differently, I really enjoyed this film, and would defiantly recommend to people