Movie: The Lovely Bones
I recently read the book, by Alice Sebold, and while it kept me captivated, I thought the ending was completely lame. It didn’t make me disappointed I’d read the book, though. Just wished it had ended differently.
As I read the book I kept wondering how it’d be handled as a movie.
I didn’t know as I read it that it was shortly to be released as a movie. I felt like there were numerous ways the book could be portrayed—it could be a creepy thriller, or it could have a sort of magical, mystical feel. I was happy when I saw previews for the movie that it they’d gone for the magical, mystical feel. And I was hopeful that they’d change what I objected to in the ending of the book.
They did.
The story is about a girl who is murdered when she is 14. The story is told from her point of view, after she’s dead. The portrayal of what her afterlife is like is simply gorgeous in the movie.
I’m a sucker for a gorgeous movie.
It’s also a sad movie, since the story deals with how her family copes with their grief over her murder. But there are creepy elements thrown in.
I was happy they left out the part of the ending I considered lame, but there were things about the book I like more than the movie. In a book you get inside the characters’ heads and emotions a lot more than you do in a movie. The way each character deals with the loss of Susie is really what I loved about the story. And you lose a lot of it in the movie.
That said, I think it’s going to join the list of my all-time favorite films. It’s definitely a “chick flick”—as my daughter and I were leaving the theater, an older couple were walking ahead of us. The woman said, “I loved that movie!” and the man said, “I thought it was horrible!” She said, “I knew you’d hate it.”
(I should also add that I’m a sucker for either Wahlberg brother. When I tried to explain to my daughter after the movie who Marky Mark was, she looked at me like I was insane.)
Posted on January 21, 2010, in Film. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
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Does that trailer show as much of the story as it seems?
If you see The Happening you will no longer be a sucker for Marky Mark.
I hated the ending of the book, too. I have no interest in the movie.
Yeah it seems like the trailer gives away a lot.
I actually get Mark and Don confused. I loved Don in Boomtown. I think that was such an underrated TV show. I want it on DVD now.
I forgot to mention this movie uses one of my all-time fave songs (and my fave cover ever) in a major scene. This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren.”
I read. A lot. And this book is the single most disturbing thing I have ever read. When I finished it, I actually through it away. In the garbage.
I will not see the movie. Just the title is enough to bring back the nightmares.
Uh, that should be “threw it away.”
What was disturbing about it? I’ve had other women tell me the beginning (rape/murder) was a little too disturbing for them, but it didn’t bother me. I tend to like really dark and depressing stuff, though. One of my fave writers is Pat Conroy (The Prince of Tides).
Yes, it was the beginning. The detail of the rape/murder told from her perspective was terrifying. I can’t really say why this particular story profoundly disturbed me. I’ve read other accounts without the same level of terror.
The ending was very unsatisfying, but it felt true. Any writer willing to begin a book in such a way can’t end with it all wrapped up in a tidy package.
I don’t remember the ending as being unsatisfying, I just thought the sex scene was lame. But I realize the story was coming full circle. It starts with a rape.
BTW, the movie leaves out the rape. And never gets very graphic with the murder. But there is another death scene that gets rather graphic.
The author herself is a rape victim. From her wikipedia page:
In an interview conducted by Ann Darby of Publishers Weekly, Sebold said of The Lovely Bones: “I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it’s not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who’ve experienced it from those who haven’t. Though it’s a horrible experience, it’s not as if violence hasn’t affected many of us.”
I hated the sex stuff at the end of the book. It was like another, inferior book interrupted this really good one. I remember scratching my head and wondering what the author was possibly thinking.
I may see this when it comes to the dollar movie.
I’ve had this book for over a year, and still haven’t read it. Something about the intensity- every time I pick it up, I hold it, then lay it aside again. Haven’t even read the first page. Maybe I’ll keep waiting.
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