The Lovely Bones

I was cleaning the bathroom yesterday when the four o'clock showing of The Lovely Bones squeezed my arm and told me to make my way down to the theater by four o'clock. My wallet contained all my spending money for the next couple of weeks, which was eleven dollars. There was a voice opposing the movies strongly, so I let both sides of my brain battle it out. The one telling me that eleven dollars was enough to buy a carton of milk duds and get into the movie was the victor. It was a fair fight.

I picked up my favorite movie snack at the grocery store and made it to the box office with three minutes to spare. I paid close attention to the time my movie would start, because I am very particular about getting there early, and getting the perfect seat. If I were even seven minutes late, which meant the previews weren't over yet, I would call the whole thing off and go home. But anyways, about the movie.

Probably the reason I wanted to go was because it's based on a very successful book of the same title by Alice Sebold, and also that it's directed, written and produced in part by Peter Jackson, whose movies I am very fond of. Besides King Kong. The Lovely Bones centers around 14-year-old Suzy Salmon, a happy and content girl growing up in a healthy, successful family in early '70s Pennsylvania. Everything is going great, until she is taken advantage of and murdered by middle-aged man George Harvey, her neighbor and stalker.

Thankfully, Jackson chose not to put the actual murder on display for us, but nevertheless, the movie is pretty intense in some parts, as well as having its fare share of disturbing imagery. While it bears the PG-13 rating, and not the R rating that the book it was based on definitely deserved, you may want to think twice before going to see it if you get scared/disturbed easily.

After Suzy dies, she enters the 'in between,' a sort of bridge from earth to heaven, in which she can still spectate the lives that surrounded her. She can even come into contact with earth, to an extent. But the fact remains that she is not coming back to her family and her friends and her life. She struggles between her desire for her family to recover from the tragedy, and her desire for vengeance. It's a very important part of the movie, because what Suzy wants could affect what actually happens.

About halfway through the movie, I became very puzzled and even a little upset, and it wasn't because I didn't understand the plot. I just couldn't decide what I thought about the whole 'in-between' deal. I bet a lot of other christians will be upset and offended with this movie due to its 'false' assumptions of life after death, but who knows? Maybe God puts some people on a bridge like Suzy's, because that's just part of His plan for that person. He does work in mysterious ways.

So on my way out to the car, I pulled away from my need to make a theological conclusion and realized how much I enjoyed the movie. The only actors I recognized were Suzy's parents, played by Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz, but I think every acted their parts really well, and made me care about them and what the outcome would be. It's a very real story about something that happens way too often in real life. And Peter Jackson has done another spectacular job, combining elements of cinematography and very blissful imagery of Suzy's heaven. Maybe we can talk about this movie a little more in-depth after we die?