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The Lovely Bones (2009)

tomatometer

33

Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 227
Fresh: 74 | Rotten: 153

It's stuffed full of Peter Jackson's typically dazzling imagery, but The Lovely Bones suffers from abrupt shifts between horrific violence and cloying sentimentality.

29

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 27

It's stuffed full of Peter Jackson's typically dazzling imagery, but The Lovely Bones suffers from abrupt shifts between horrific violence and cloying sentimentality.

audience

57

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 350,669

My Rating

Movie Info

Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is just experiencing the pangs of first love when she's viciously murdered by her neighbor Mr. Harvey (Stanley Tucci), a predatory wolf with a deceptively mundane appearance. As her family slowly begins drifting apart while struggling to make sense of their loss, Susie bravely attempts to find her footing in the hereafter. Meanwhile, down on earth, Mr. Harvey is feeling confident that he's covered his tracks well enough to get away with the crime,

Apr 20, 2010

$44.0M

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (227) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (75) | Rotten (155) | DVD (7)

Jackson seems more at home in the afterlife than in this one, rendering this off-kilter project creepy and pretentious.

February 19, 2010 Full Review Source: CNN.com | Comment
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Some books should stay between their covers, and The Lovely Bones may well be one of them.

January 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comments (4)
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Understand, the film still has power, just not as much as it should.

January 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie is often wise.

January 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is a distractingly busy movie, so in love with its own considerable craft that it can't stay still long enough for anything to settle in.

January 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Jackson's grand, computer-generated vision of Susie's Dali-like "in between," while occasionally gorgeous, leaves the viewer feeling stuck between two worlds, too. The story suffers.

January 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Your own peace will come after you walk out, trying hard not to laugh at how crazy-bad it all is.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com | Comment
Movies.com

Unshackled by earthly restraints, Jackson shifts his Weta toolsets into overdrive in a more-is-more free-for-all frenzy.

March 30, 2011 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

The Lovely Bones is probably a much better idea for a book than it is a movie, but it's still a very good one, and those don't come along too often.

March 29, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
ComingSoon.net

The talented cast struggles with, and is eventually failed by, the material. They are not aided by their director either, who seemingly stood slightly off screen and urged them to 'act bigger!'

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment

I had a few bones to pick with the story.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review | Comment
3BlackChicks Review

The film is such a misfire, such a disappointing collection of failed attempts at emotional affect and confounding storytelling choices, that it seems more like a bad director's attempt to rip off Jackson's style than his own work.

July 4, 2010 Full Review Source: DCist | Comments (4)

No hay manera de tomarse en serio, al menos no en el marco de una película que debió ser perturbadora y conmovedora en partes iguales, la serie de momentos Kodak imposibles con que Peter Jackson intenta retratar la vida después de la muerte.

June 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

Only Tucci's chilling, truly scarier than Hannibal Lechter psychopath holds the far too fanciful scenario together, bolted to planet earth as best he can.

May 25, 2010 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Only Tucci's chilling, truly scarier than Hannibal Lechter psychopath holds the far too fanciful scenario together, bolted to planet earth as best he can.

May 25, 2010 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

The whole plays better than that would suggest, largely due to Jackson's imagination and commanding skill.

May 16, 2010 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

Pet peeves and stylistic differences of opinion work against Heavenly Creatures director

May 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Habit | Comment
Movie Habit

For all the efforts of a fine cast, Jackson never gives his human drama the desperation and frustration it calls for...

April 26, 2010 Full Review Source: MSN.com | Comment
MSN.com

Interview with Rose McIver of The Lovely Bones: "It was terrifying to see [Stanley Tucci] transform on screen into someone so utterly different from himself."

April 23, 2010 Full Review Source: HollywoodChicago.com | Comment
HollywoodChicago.com

While technically accomplished, exhibiting flashes of Jackson's idiosyncratic taste, it is frequently sentimental, softhearted, and diffuse. (Blu-ray Ediiton)

April 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

I never read the novel, so I have no idea if it is as tedious as Peter Jackson's movie.

April 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Artistically and technically, this film is superb, rich in excellent performances, wondrous visuals and compelling ideas. Yet for all its brilliance, The Lovely Bones remains elusive.

April 2, 2010 Full Review | Comment
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

Uludo potro%u0161ena sjajna gluma%u010Dka ekipa u djelu %u010Diji zbrzani scenarij luta izme%u0111u depresivne drame, krimi-trilera i crne komedije

April 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | Comments (2)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Lovely Bones

The performance of the lead child actress is great. The visuals are pretty good and yet they're very confusing as if they were taken out of a level from super mario galaxy. But that's all there is to it. And of course, Jackson is faithful as ever with the novel as he was with his adaptions of King Kong and Lord of the

December 19, 2011
Michael M.
Michael Miller

Super Reviewer

135 mins were like eternity,so if it was shorter or I better say bit faster at action, it could be more watchable .Though what was really annoying ,was the metaphysical mentions in the script which gave a bad fairy-tailing atmosphere in the air.

February 14, 2010
MrsInsomnia
Eliza Norton

Super Reviewer

    1. George Harvey: Ducks... It's all about concealment, the art of concealment and staying up late waiting in the hours of the dark...
    – Submitted by Alex M (47 days ago)
    1. Susie Salmon: Nobody notices when we leave. I mean, the moment when we really choose to go. At best you might feel a whisper, or the wave of a whisper, undulating down.
    2. Susie Salmon: My name is Salmon, like the fish. First name: Susie. I was fourteen years old when I was murdered on December 6th, 1973. I was here for a moment, and then I was gone. I wish you all, a long, and happy life.
    – Submitted by Jishnu V (10 months ago)
    1. Susie Salmon: I was in the blue horizon between heaven and earth. The days were unchanging, and every night I dreamt the same dream. The smell of damp earth. The scream no one heard. The sound of my heart beating like a hammer against cloth, and I would hear them calling, the voices of the dead. I wanted to follow them to find a way out but I would always come back to the same door. And I was afraid. I knew if I went in there I would never come out.
    – Submitted by Jishnu V (10 months ago)

Latest News for The Lovely Bones

July 20, 2011:
Jeff Smith Talks Bone Adaptation
He calls his first glimpse of test footage from the long-gestating film version of his bestselling...

December 2, 2010:
Ryan Gosling Reflects on Lovely Bones Firing
In a roundtable discussion hosted by the Hollywood Reporter, Ryan Gosling reveals that he was fired...

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Foreign Titles

  • In meinem Himmel (DE)
  • Lovely Bones (FR)
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