webSalt
Review: The Lovely Bones
Directed by Peter Jackson
Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci
Rated: M (for more details see the IMDB's Parents' Guide)
Peter Jackson, the now legendary director of The Lord of the Rings and King Kong, has finally released his long awaited adaptation of Alice Sebold's hugely popular novel, The Lovely Bones. Jackson has waited four years to release his much-anticipated follow up to King Kong, and it's a dramatic departure from his customary fantasy milieu. However, despite its pedigree (a beloved novel plus a talented film-maker) it appears that, by and large, something has been lost in translation.
At its heart, the story focuses on some very potent subject matter. Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), a blithe and carefree teenager, is murdered on the way home from school by the seemingly friendly neighbor down the road (Stanley Tucci). However, her soul lives on in heaven and continues to narrate the story to us from her vantage point there. From heaven, she watches on helplessly as her family is torn apart by the tragedy and her killer frustratingly manages to elude justice. Her father (Mark Wahlberg – good, though miscast) resolves to stop at nothing until he finds the man who killed his daughter, while their mother (Rachel Weisz) is eventually driven away by his obsession, and Susie’s surviving siblings watch helplessly as their family breaks down. Gradually, however, the whole family becomes involved in the quest to bring justice to Susie.
Jackson was reportedly a huge fan of Sebold's novel and adapting the film was obviously a matter of great love and attention for him. However, although I have not read the book, it appears that something has been lost in this adaptation. Harrowingly the book was actually based on the author's own experience. As a teenager, Sebold attacked and raped on her way home from school. Though she survived the ordeal, she was considered extremely lucky as, a short time earlier, another girl had been raped and murdered in the same location. The story is obviously heavily rooted in this awful reality and, reportedly, the book goes to some length to describe the physical details of Susie’s murder. Jackson mercifully spares us these graphic scenes. But in doing so he also opts to skim right over the details of her death and somehow manages to drain the crime of all its seriousness. Instead we are given a more family friendly version, in which the film unwisely chooses to focus on the fantastical, supernatural aftermath of her death. Here Jackson goes to enormous lengths to create a phantasmagorical paradise of Susie's own imagination (making great use of his CGI workshop WETA) which, though visually impressive, goes so overboard that it seems incongruent with the rest of the film. (Indeed some scenes of Susie’s heaven are so over the top and hyper-imaginative that you begin to wonder if it isn't Jackson himself who’s lost in a world of his own creation!)
What is far more compelling is the smaller human story that takes place on earth, as we follow the surviving family members. Here the film tackles head on some issues of startling relevance to Christians. Indeed the story was obviously something of a catharsis for Sebold, who attempts to find real answers and closure to such a horrific event. In the film we watch as each family member attempts to resolve and find meaning in the event. Each struggles with how to go on after Susie's death, but eventually each follows a different path. Their father becomes obsessed with finding the killer and avenging Susie's death (to the detriment of his family). Susie's mother resolves that the only way she can find peace is to abandon the quest and let it go, as it's not what Susie would have wanted. And their surviving daughter, Lindsay, watches on helplessly, eventually deciding that she too must do something to finish this.
It's a dilemma that faces all people in the aftermath of tragedy. What meaning can there possibly be in such a horrific event? The film ultimately tries to give an optimistic and hopeful response. In real life, however, the solution may not be as simple. The determination for justice and revenge, while it may bring some closure, will ultimately not bring back a loved one. Equally, the obsession can become so all consuming that it overshadows, even taints, the memory of the one whose life was taken.
Furthermore while it may seem comforting that the film views Susie as living on happily in heaven, the film's portrayal of the afterlife is far from satisfactory. Heaven as a kind of halfway point where a child lives in a world of its own imagining is just that, imagined! I sincerely believe that God will be just and merciful in dealing with young children who are killed in such a fashion. I hope that a girl of Susie's age who is taken from the world so tragically, might live on in heaven. However, as a Christian, I want to cling to the only true hope of salvation, that as sinners, the only assurance we have for the afterlife is in the atoning death of Jesus Christ.
In the end, the film does offer some wise answers to the survivors of tragedy. The obsession to find justice can ultimately not bring back a loved one. Likewise revenge, or a perpetrator's capture, can ultimately serve only one good purpose: to prevent them from killing again. Indeed as the film concludes, perhaps the best and only response in the end is to somehow look to what good can be brought from tragedy. From a Christian perspective, this is most definitely true. Jesus, when his disciples asked why a man had been born blind, replied, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned … but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (John 9:3). Christians can ultimately respond to tragedy knowing that our hope lies beyond this world. We have a unique perspective on the world which helps us to understand what suffering in this life really is: a) the result of man’s sin and God's judgement on a fallen world, and b) an opportunity for God to, somehow, bring about good.
The film concludes that the death of a loved one can bring about great good in the lives of those who suffer as a result. It's great that a film can offer such an honest and insightful response. However, as Christians, let us not forget that God’s ultimate will in tragedy is to bring about his own good and perfect will and purposes.
