Step 1: Try to adapt. While some book-to-screen adaptations hit the mark, others miss it. Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones sort of falls into the latter category. Yes, it’s a beautiful, thoughtful film, full of dark mystery and life affirmations, yet somehow it’s lacking a certain inner strength.
Step 2: Admit it ain’t easy. Jackson himself said that there can never be a perfect adaptation of a book. He says, “Alice Sebold’s novel IS The Lovely Bones – that is the work that has everything in it, every character, every subplot and that’s the way you should experience the story in its most pure form. A film adaptation of ANY book, especially The Lovely Bones, is only ever going to be a souvenir, an impression of aspects of the book.” Fair enough. Alice Sebold’s novel truly does transcend and is nothing less than spectacular, in my opinion. Yet, it is also a very cerebral novel, which makes it even more difficult to translate to screen. Basically, the entire story is told by from the mind of a young 14-year-old girl, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), who, after being brutally raped and murdered, looks down from her heaven and tries to help her family catch her killer (Stanley Tucci), as well as try to stop them from falling apart. Her father (Mark Wahlberg) obsesses over solving her murder, while her mother (Rachel Weisz) simply wants to escape – and her younger sister Lindsay (Rose McIver) ends up living the life Susie wishes she could have had. While Jackson, along with longtime writing partners Fran Walsh and Phillip Boyens, gather as many “impressions” as they can to fit into a two-hour movie, the result comes off a tad superficial.
Step 3: Realize part of the problem also stems from the some of the performances. Wahlberg, for example, doesn’t dig nearly deep enough to aptly portray the grieving father. To be fair, this role really isn’t suited for him; he’s much better kicking ass. I wonder, though, what Ryan Gosling, who was originally cast as Mr. Salmon, would have done with the part. Switch it up, I’d imagine. The usually wonderful Weisz also sort of phones this one in. Thankfully, the lovely Ronan, who was soooo good in her Oscar-nominated performance in Atonement, does a nice job bringing Susie to life, as it were. She captures Susie’s wonderment on her new environs and sadness in having to watch her family struggle, while Susan Sarandon provides the comic relief as the boozy, chain-smoking Grandma Lynn, who comes in to take care of the family when Mom checks out. But the real plus in The Lovely Bones is Tucci’s take on the terrifying Mr. Harvey, who is so much more menacing in all the things he doesn’t say. If anyone were to get an Oscar nod, it would be him – and rightly so. With this and his terrific turn in Julie & Julia earlier this summer, Tucci may finally have one of those years.
Step 4: Stick with what you do best. There’s no doubt Jackson knows what he’s doing tackling the technical aspects, especially when it comes to creating Susie’s “in-between” world, in which things from her subconscious spring to life, either by the actions of those still alive connected to her or from her own hopes and dreams. Creating fantastical tableaus is what Jackson lives for, so I wouldn’t expect anything less. My favorite image is of giant glass bottles, with sailing ships inside, crashing on a beach, just as Susie’s father is destroying all the very same miniature models he built with his daughter. Overall, Jackson does his best in adapting The Lovely Bones, a task that would be difficult for any director, seriously. If he isn’t able to quite capture the book’s magical qualities, at least you know going in it’ll be a worthwhile cinematic experience.
Level of difficulty in watching The Lovely Bones: Easy, but just not as good as the book.