The Lovely Bones

Last night I went to see The Lovely Bones for free, thanks to seefilmfirst.com! Gotta love a freebie!! Now, I haven't read the book, although it's been sitting on my bookshelf for years, so I had no expectations when going to see this film, which is a good thing a film never lives up to the book. And considering how all my girlfriends gushed when I said I was going to a pre-screening, the book must be good. Unfortunately, the film wasn't.

The Lovely Bones is about a 14 year old girl, Susie Salmon, who is brutally murdered by a serial killer who lives on her street. She refuses to move on to heaven, instead lingering in the world between worlds, watching as her family unravel in the aftermath of her death and her murderer set his sights on her younger sister after the urge to kill resurfaces.

In theory, the plot is perfect to make into a film, directed by Peter Jackson and a star studded cast (Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg play her parents) should ensure a hit, but the psychadelic limbo scenes made me feel like I was on a bad acid trip and corny lines from her high school crush Ray Singh made me cringe. I'm not sure how the book ends, but the demise of the killer was positively one huge anticlimax. Don't get me wrong, there were parts where I had tears in my eyes, and I laughed out loud a few times too, but they were few and far between.

The long and short of it is, I'm glad it was a free pre-screening as this is definitely a DVD movie. Mediocre at best.