The Lovely Bones is a 2009 film just now arriving in theaters, but it's worth the wait.
Based on Alice Sebold's haunting bestseller, the movie stars Saoirse Roanan as Susie, a beautiful young girl who is murdered at the beginning of the movie. She spends most of the film between heaven and earth trying to help her family find her killer.
Stanley Tucci plays her creepy neighbor, who is also a killer. Like the book, director Peter Jackson wants viewers to know right away what's happening. This is not a murder mystery, but an often beautiful and melancholy film about a young girl's lost dreams and her love of life and family.
Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz play grieving parents in the surprisingly thoughtful film.
The Lovely Bones is rated an intense PG-13. But Jackson's first film since King Kong doesn't always work. The heavenly sequences are often over the top. When his film is earthbound, however, viewers can cut the tension with a cinematic knife.
The Lovely Bones is a good film and deserves to be in anyone's best list.
E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com
