JamesG
12-14-2009, 12:49 AM
Movie Reviews: The Lovely Bones
Once long ago, cinema and literary pundits blithely pontificated that Tolkien’s massive The Lord of the Rings novels could never be transformed into a movie.
And then Peter Jackson came along and did it.
Now he’s tried his hand at turning Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel The Lovely Bones into a movie.
Critics almost unanimously agreed that the novel is unfilmable — and Jackson’s effort, they aver, is proof of that opinion.
It’s told from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl who exists in the Inbetween world that divides life from heaven after being brutally murdered.
“But a device that works on the page comes off artificial and emotionless on-screen,” comments Claudia Puig in USA Today.
Not that Jackson hasn’t thrown everything his Weta special-effects house could produce at it.
“The result is dumbfounding and ludicrous in equal measure,” Joe Morgenstern remarks in the Wall Street Journal.
Puig in USA Today says that it veers “from lightheartedness to heavy-handedness.”
Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News says that Jackson is “either too cutesy or licking his chops over the lurking dread.”
Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times concludes that the movie is “more hit-and-miss than unblemished triumph.”
Several critics compare the Inbetween world that Jackson has created with rock album covers of the 1970s.
“Whew. Color me relieved,” writes Kyle Smith in the New York Post. “There is no need to fear death, even the most horrifying kind of murder. Because the afterlife is exactly like the album cover for a 1970s progressive-rock band.”
A.O. Scott in the New York Times remarks that the movie amounts to “a mid-’70s art-rock album cover brought to life.”
But fancy covers alone never sold many albums and the striking visuals Weta has produced for The Lovely Bones have fallen short of lifting the screenplay, critics suggest.
“The spectacle Jackson creates is showmanship, not storytelling,” Associated Press writer David Germain concludes.
-IMDB News
Once long ago, cinema and literary pundits blithely pontificated that Tolkien’s massive The Lord of the Rings novels could never be transformed into a movie.
And then Peter Jackson came along and did it.
Now he’s tried his hand at turning Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel The Lovely Bones into a movie.
Critics almost unanimously agreed that the novel is unfilmable — and Jackson’s effort, they aver, is proof of that opinion.
It’s told from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl who exists in the Inbetween world that divides life from heaven after being brutally murdered.
“But a device that works on the page comes off artificial and emotionless on-screen,” comments Claudia Puig in USA Today.
Not that Jackson hasn’t thrown everything his Weta special-effects house could produce at it.
“The result is dumbfounding and ludicrous in equal measure,” Joe Morgenstern remarks in the Wall Street Journal.
Puig in USA Today says that it veers “from lightheartedness to heavy-handedness.”
Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News says that Jackson is “either too cutesy or licking his chops over the lurking dread.”
Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times concludes that the movie is “more hit-and-miss than unblemished triumph.”
Several critics compare the Inbetween world that Jackson has created with rock album covers of the 1970s.
“Whew. Color me relieved,” writes Kyle Smith in the New York Post. “There is no need to fear death, even the most horrifying kind of murder. Because the afterlife is exactly like the album cover for a 1970s progressive-rock band.”
A.O. Scott in the New York Times remarks that the movie amounts to “a mid-’70s art-rock album cover brought to life.”
But fancy covers alone never sold many albums and the striking visuals Weta has produced for The Lovely Bones have fallen short of lifting the screenplay, critics suggest.
“The spectacle Jackson creates is showmanship, not storytelling,” Associated Press writer David Germain concludes.
-IMDB News