“These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections — sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent — that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events my death brought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous lifeless body had been my life.”

It was late 2007 or early 2008 when I half-read the novel “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold in ebook. The film adaptation was directed by Peter Jackson and it came out January and February this year. I wonder why the movie wasn’t released (or hasn’t been released yet) in the Philippines.

The Lovely Bones is about a teenage girl named Susie Salmon who was raped and murdered by her neighbor, a lonely old man who has a fetish for little girls. He’s a psycho but appears to be like a “normal” human being to just about everyone, except for the girls he violated.

It was kinda’ vague how Susie was killed in the movie because the rape-then-murder scene was skipped. I was expecting “it” because that part in the book really pained me. Anyway, viewers can get a clue from Mr. Harvey’s [the murderer] dialogue, “You’re very pretty, Susie.” So yes, she was raped first before she was killed.

Susie then dwelt in a place she called “Heaven“. The film presented it as a place between heaven and earth that appeared to be a picture of one’s dreams & imaginations. I enjoyed the “slideshow” of dreamy landscapes – the wide meadows and vast seas. This is where Susie watched her family mourn and seek helplessly for justice and at the same time watched over her killer enjoy his freedom and make schemes to devour her younger sister.

Decent cinematography. The visual effects made me want to believe that there indeed exists an admirable, almost magical place after death.

The performance of Saoirse Ronan who played the lead role Susie Salmon was impressive. I think she nailed her part well. In fact she won the Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress. Excellent performances for the rest of the cast too – Susan Sarandon (Grandma Lynn), Mark Wahlberg (Jack Salmon), Stanley Tucci (George Harvey), and Rachel Weisz (Abigail Salmon).

The ending was unexpected, too bad I didn’t finish the book. If time and resources would still allow me, I’d read the novel again [and in full] to refresh my memory.

Thinking of it, I am now afraid to have a baby girl. Why do such bastards like George Harvey exist?

Published: 2010-05-23 23:41:38