Monday, February 6, 2012

The Lovely Bones(film)

The Lovely Bones

-2009 American supernatural drama directed by Peter Jackson
-Film adaptation of the 2002 novel by Alice Sebold
-Stars Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, alongside Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon, and Rachel Weisz as Abigail Salmon. Also stars Susan Sarandon as Grandma Lynn, Amanda Michalka as Clarissa and Stanley Tucci as George Harvey
Did You Know?
-The poster on the wall in Susie's room is of David Cassidy
-For the role of George Harvey, Stanley Tucci had his entire appearance altered, such as the hair on his chest and arm dyed to match the blondish brown comb over wig he was to wear, false teeth to alter his jaw line, a lentil-filled fat suit, blue contact lenses since his eye color in real life is brown, square frame glasses, a mustache and sideburns.
-The record Ray Singh holds in his hands when Ruth shouts at him and sees George Harvey is Black Sabbath's self titled debut album
-In the novel, Susie is raped before she is killed, and it goes into great detail, which is what happened to Alice Sebold. This scene was withheld from the movie as the director felt it would be too traumatic for the then 13 year Saoirse Ronan to endure.






Plot
-In 1973, Susie Salmon(Saoirse Ronan) is a 14 year old girl living in Pennsylvania with her parents, Jack(Mark Wahlberg) and Abigail(Rachel Weisz), sister Lindsay, and brother Buckley. She dreams about becoming a photographer some day. One day, a boy she likes, Ray Singh(Reece Ritchie), an Indian man from England, approaches her at her locker and slips a note into her textbook. He asks her out the following day. As Susie walks home through a cornfield known locally as the Stolfuz cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey(Stanley Tucci). He convinces her to go into an underground den he says he built for the neighborhood kids to hang out in. Inside, Susie becomes extremely uneasy in his presence and attempts to leave, but he grabs her, and she kicks him in the face. She runs into the field on to the street, rushing past Ruth Connors(Carolyn Dando), a fellow classmate.




-Meanwhile, the Salmon family becomes worried when Susie does not come home. Her father Jack(Mark Wahlberg), goes out to search for her while her mother Abigail(Rachel Weisz) waits for the police. In town, Susie sees her father, but he does not hear her. Susie then runs home to find Harvey soaking in a tub to get the mud and blood off of him. When she sees her charm bracelet on the sink along with a bloody shaving razor, only then does she realize that she never escape and that she was actually murdered by Mr. Harvey. Screaming, she is pulled into the "In-Between", which is not heaven or Earth. From there, Susie watches over her family, unable to let go despite her new friend, Holly(Nikkie SooHoo), begging her to move on.



-Investigating the disappearance is Det. Len Fenerman(Michael Imperioli), who thinks that Susie was murdered by someone she knew. Jack begins to obsessively research neighbors, including Harvey, who he soon comes to suspect is the killer. Fenerman interviews Harvey but is unable to link him to the murder. Susie's sister Lindsay(Rose McIver), comes to agree with her father about the suspicions, but their work takes an emotional toll on Abigail, and that's when he invites her alcoholic mother Lynn(Susan Sarandon) to live with them for a little while. Feeling alienated from her husband, Abigail leaves the family in the lurch for a while, going to California to work at Krusoe Winery. Susie inspects a lighthouse and learns that Harvey, who is now planning to go after Lindsay, has murdered 6 other people, including Holly and that he stuffed Susie's body into a safe in his basement.




-One night, Jack, carrying a bat belonging to Lindsay, trails Harvey into the cornfield. But he accidentally stumbles across Susie's friend Clarissa(Amanda Michalka), and her boyfriend Brian Nelson(Jake Abel), who mistakenly thinks his girlfriend is being assaulted. Susie watches as her father is nearly beaten to death. As Jack is recovering, Lindsay breaks into Mr. Harvey's house and steals a notebook containing a sketch of the cornfield, the den and a lock of Susie's hair. Harvey returns home and hears Lindsay, who barely makes an escape and runs home to find her mother has returned. Not wishing to spoil the good moment, she hides the book from her mother and instead gives it to her grandmother. Scared of being caught, Harvey then begins to pack up and flee


-The realm Susie is is begins expanding into a larger heaven, and she is greeted by Harvey's other victims. She resists Holly's pleas to enter heaven, claiming she has one other thing to do. Meanwhile, Ruth and Ray are present when Harvey drives to dump the safe at a sinkhole dump on the Connor's property. Susie returns to Earth and enters Ruth's body. This causes Ruth to faint. Ray rushes to help her and instead sees Susie. They share a kiss, completing her last earthly wish and she returns to heaven, as Harvey drives away. Meanwhile, the safe is tumbling down into the sinkhole to never be found.



-Later on, an older George Harvey meets a young woman outside a diner and offers her a ride, but she declines and leaves. A large icicle overhead then falls, causing him to stumble on the ice, making him fall backward over a cliff to his death. Time passes and Susie sees her family changing, and healing, which she refers to as "the lovely bones" that grew around her absence. As the film ends, she enters Heaven, telling the audience "My name is Salmon, like the fish, first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on Dec. 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life."





Cast
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