The Lovely Bones

Some souls are not rested. They just roam around us, finding ways to free themselves from the things that bind them to the Earth. This concept is depicted in the 2009 film from DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures.

The Lovely Bones is a movie adaptation of the award-winning and best-selling 2002 novel of the same name by Alice Sebold. It is directed by Peter Jackson, and stars Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, and Stanley Tucci.

Plot. On December 6, 1973, fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon (played by Saoirse Ronan) is murdered. As she is walking home through a cornfield that day, she runs into her neighbor George Harvey (Stanley Tucci). The man coaxes her into going with him inside an underground den, saying that he has built it for the neighborhood children. However, Susie senses the danger and evil in the man when she enters the den. She tries to escape but the man grabs her and the cruel murder is then done. Yet, her body is not found... Susie’s parents and sister grieve for her sudden disappearance, and through the years, the family she leaves behind is slowly torn. But little do they know that Susie is still around. Her soul remains in a surreal world, the “In-Between”, that is neither Heaven nor Earth. Susie watches over her loved ones, unable to let go of her frustrations, loneliness, and dreams. In her afterlife, Susie discovers that Harvey has murdered six other females and that her own body is hidden inside a safe in his basement. Moreover, Susie’s grown sister, Lindsey, has now become Harvey’s next victim. But Lindsey has already suspected Harvey and later breaks into his house and discovers the notebook that keeps his secrets. As the truth is gradually brought to light, and Susie’s dreams are somehow fulfilled, her afterlife begins expanding into a larger heaven. In the end, Harvey faces a fateful death and Susie frees herself and enters heaven.

Review. The Lovely Bones is a fantasy movie dealing with how a family copes up with the death of a member. In the film, we see a father in desperation and a mother in denial, and when they finally learn to accept it, justice is served. Yet, the movie has always veered from that theme and instead focused more on how Susie’s soul travels through afterlife and slowly fulfills her “life” in that world. It is a happy-sad world where she slowly pieced the mystery of her murder. Again, the film shifted into another theme – crime and punishment.

The Lovely Bones has a simple storyline interlaced with breathe-taking imagery and striking sentimentality. It has ambitiously shown us pictures of “afterlife” and “heaven” which maybe symbolic and romantic, yet unoriginal and cheesy at times. There is so much emotion evoked in the film, and the alternation of humor, love, misery, hopefulness, and terror really brought interest to the film. However, these sudden shifts of themes and emotions sometimes make a mess, and audiences are left guessing what the movie is for. Is it for adults or teens? Is it mystery, fantasy, or family drama?

The ending of the movie is also quite confusing. Yes, the murderer is found out but is not caught. He easily sneaks the safe containing Susie’s body and dumps it into a sinkhole where the ground totally swallowed it. As this happens, Susie is happy and slowly enters heaven. Could there really be happiness in that?

Unforgettable scenes. The scenes where different images of afterlife and heaven are the most unforgettable parts. They take you to the heights of your imagination. Also, the kiss near the ending, which I find very pathetic, childish and melodramatic, is also quite memorable.

Actors. The performances of Saoirse Ronan and Stanley Tucci were most praised. I first saw Ronan in The Atonement and she was as brilliant as in the film. Ronan can really draw audiences and her innocence, dreaminess, and humor are touching and believable. Meanwhile, Tucci‘s portrayal of the serial killer is perfection with his impulsiveness and silently terrifying look. Both earned various nominations for their acting performance, with Ronan winning three awards.

Reception. The movie received mostly negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an approval rating of 33%, while Metacritic scored it 42%. Yet, the movie did so well in the box office, mostly from non-North American territories.

Rating. Out of five, I will give the movie three and a half stars. I really find the movie a “pretty mess” or a “beautiful disaster”. But I still love the film. Its underlying messages, stark emotions, and great special effects make the movie worth seeing again. And again.

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Volver

A mother’s love and how much she can do for love is too much to fathom. And one of the best movies dealing with this complexity is this 2006 Spanish film.

Volver, Spanish for “to come back”, is a film directed by Pedro Almodóvar and stars five outstanding female actresses including Penelope Cruz.

The movie details the intertwined lives of five women – Irene and her daughters Sole and Raimunda, Raimunda’s daughter Paula, and their friend Augustina. Sisters Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) and Sole grew up in a small village in La Mancha but now both live in Madrid. Their parents died in a tragic fire three years earlier. One day, Sole has to return to their village to attend to her aunt’s death. There, she encounters the ghost of their mother Irene, and when she returns to Madrid, the ghost also goes along with her. Sole is frightened but agrees to let her mother stay with her. Meanwhile, Raimunda and her daughter Paula have a different death to cope with. Paula accidentally kills her father when he attempts to rape her. Raimunda quickly hides the corpse in a freezer of a nearby unused restaurant. To keep the secret hidden, she manages to run the restaurant again and deals to cater for different events. Later, Raimunda undertakes the task of disposing her husband’s remains. To accomplish this, Raimunda leaves her daughter Paula to her sister Sole. But this is such a fateful thing to do! Paula sees her grandmother’s ghost and grows close to her. What revelations will be further exposed? What will Paula learn from her grandmother’s ghost? What has really happened in that fire three years before?

 

Volver has so much themes. According to director Almodóvar, the movie “is precisely about death… More than about death itself, the screenplay talks about the rich culture that surrounds death in the region of La Mancha, where I was born.” There are two deaths in the movie, and how each mother deals and copes with death is quite different. One chooses to stay behind the shadows and waits for the appropriate time to redeem herself, while the other faces death and resolves to make “good” of it. This also deals with two stories between mother and daughter – one is estranged by death and lies, while the other builds itself over loss and secret.

Watching the movie is like reading a Charles Dickens’ book. There are several characters involved, events are sluggish especially at the beginning, and audiences will keep on wondering where the story will lead to. Yet in the end, everything will fall into place, the significance of each character’s role will be highlighted, and the audience will empathize with the emotional turmoil with the characters.

 

Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an approval rating of 91%. Volver  also appeared in many critics’ top ten lists of the best films of 2006, including critics in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Rolling Stone, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. It received several wins and nominations including the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards, Cesar Awards, Goya Awards, Cannes Film Festival, and many others. Penelope Cruz’s performance in the film was also well-acclaimed and awarded. In the box office, Volver is one of the top-grossing foreign language films of all time.

I will give the film three and a half stars out of five. The film has great storyline but I find it too complex. I have to watch it a second time to fully comprehend its message and only then I appreciated it. Also, the first half of the film is quite slow and the fact that audiences has so few ideas where the story goes may discourage them from watching the movie until the end. However, it is hard to discredit what many critics have to say about the film so I will still say it is a meaningful and worthy film. 

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