The marketing department of Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” have been busy little bees this week as we have been given an early taste of the highly anticipated film.
Based on the critically acclaimed Alice Sebold novel, ‘Lovely Bones’ follows the story of deceased victim Susie Salmon as she struggles between her dichotomous desires for vengeance against her murderer and wishes for her family to grieve and rebuild their lives.
Features in Empire and USA Today this week have provided us with a preview of the adaptation. Empire debuted an image featuring the film’s protagonist Susie, played by Saoirse Ronan (“City Of Ember”), in Jackson’s depiction of the world in between Earth and heaven. As Jackson explains: “When Susie dies, she finds herself caught in a place between Earth and heaven – she is in an ‘In-Between,’ as Alice Sebold calls it.” The second image from USA Today features the perpetrator of Susie’s death, her neighbour George Harvey, played by Stanley Tucci. Let’s not forget Brian Eno is composing the score here, so presumably the music will be rich in sonorously angelic qualities.
Despite the heavy themes covered by the film, Jackson found the bleak surroundings to be a platform for the protagonist’s story to shine. “I found the book to be curiously optimistic. I felt inspired by Susie’s struggle to come to terms with her own death. In the face of overwhelming grief, she finds hope. She holds on to love, and by doing so, she transcends the horror of her murder.”
It’s nice to hear Jackson returning to material that sounds more like the more dramatic textures of “Heavenly Creatures,” rather than yet another CGI-laden creature fest. We know you have it in you, Peter. Problem is you’re mostly still a kid inside. We’ll take what we can get we suppose.
‘Lovely Bones’ also stars Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as Susie’s parents and Susan Sarandon as Susie’s grandmother. The film is set for a release on December 11.
