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August 05, 2009

The Lovely Bones: Too Lovely?

Over on the Guardian's Film Blog, they're asking the question "does the trailer for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones seem a touch too lovely?" The issue being raised seems to be whether Peter Jackson's take on the afterlife in which the murdered teen Susie Salmon finds herself looks too pretty for the grim subject matter.

The folks who've commented on the post thus far clearly liked Alice Sebold's book on which the film is based much less than I did. I've been looking forward to this movie forever, and I love the look of the trailer. Saiorse Ronan (Atonement) who plays Susie, seems to be spot-on perfect for this part, and from what we see of the afterlife part of the film, I think it looks great.

The Guardian post notes, "Furthermore the spectacular depiction of Susie's limbo existence takes the movie into a fantasy realm reminiscent of the work of Terry Gilliam, although the suggestion that a terrible death can lead to a place of wonder and joy is itself at the very least potentially facile, at worst, repugnant."

Uh, what? Why would it be facile, or worse, repugnant, to depict the afterlife of a murdered girl as a place of wonder and joy? Does the author of the piece feel that if a person dies by being horribly murdered, wherever their soul goes to beyond this life must necessarily be some grim, horrific place? That a 14-year-old girl who's brutally murdered must be condemned to some torturous afterlife to further prolong the ugliness of what happened to her? Wouldn't depicting Susie's afterlife in that way be even MORE repugnant? I'm just saying.

Watch the trailer yourself and see what you think.

Posted by kvoynar at August 5, 2009 09:38 AM

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Posted by: CM at August 13, 2009 02:35 PM

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