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3 stars ***

It’s a rare advantage to be able to see a movie that has been adapted from a fiction novel without having been blinded by reading the book first. Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones is a perfect example of how a movie can be very good when you haven’t read the book initially because most people that took the book route to begin with don’t find this movie so enjoyable.

So what’s it all about?

The Lovely Bones centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family – and her killer – from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

It’s unusual for a movie to be written from the view point of the dead person, but at no time did it positively feel unreal.

When you have a director as acclaimed as Peter Jackson you know the special effects and in particular the CGI, is going to be of the highest order and in this movie he certainly doesn’t disappoint. Writing the screenplay himself with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens proves a successful outing given the high quality (so I’m told) of Alice Sebold’s novel.

Music is often the deciding point between a movie being average or good and Brian Eno’s outstanding contribution brings this movie to life any moment it appears to suffer.

The Beatles would’ve been proud of the long ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ passage half way through this picture, but it did tend to be slightly too long and even provided the feeling of boredom rather than excitement in finding out what the afterlife may actually look like.

Of course the bad guy gets his just desserts at the end of the movie, but not in the way that was expected, particularly as he thought he had just got away with his sixth or seventh murder.
I need to go check out our bookshelves for the manuscript, and though we have it in there somewhere, I just haven’t got around to reading it these past eight years. This movie is quite good, it doesn’t disappoint.

I really should read the book to see what the fuss was all about. Here’s what people at Amazon say.