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Reviews Counted:82
Fresh:33
Rotten:49
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: 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.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 11, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $116,616
Synopsis: Oscar winner Peter Jackson directs this adaptation of Alice Sebold's beloved novel THE LOVELY BONES. After she is killed, young Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan, ATONEMENT) looks down from heaven on... [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Saoirse Ronan
Director: Peter Jackson
It's an ethereal if not exactly spiritual adventure, in which we can feel Jackson urging us to soar in a realm we cannot know ... the nether world which can only be presented in tangible visuals on the screen. It's not your average film.
It grabs you by the shirt tails, delivers shocks and surprises and paints an effective and often thrilling juxtaposition of the real world beside an uplifting and perfect one beyond the grave.
...contains more awful scenes than any film by a gifted director in recent memory...
The strangest thing about Jackson's approach is how chaste it is. The whole film is just a bit too tasteful to achieve real catharsis.
There are some terrific moments here, but Jackson seems mostly caught in an in-between world himself.
The story shuttles back and forth between a placid 1970s suburbia and an afterlife that looks disconcerting like the cover of a Yes album; both are bloodless, all look and no vitality.
Visually suffocating.
Top CriticPeter Jackson's heavy-handed direction snuffs out any emotion struggling for oxygen as mercilessly as George Harvey did young Susie in.
Misses the nuances and emotional hub of the bestselling novel by concentrating on the crime and psychedelic shots of heaven.
While the actors deliver fine performances in 'The Lovely Bones,' they can't save this overblown film.
A striking, surreal, melancholy meditation, based on Alice Seabold's best-seller.
I'd prefer bones based on a graphic novel - or Jerry Bruckheimer bones starring Johnny Depp.
More than anything, The Lovely Bones feels like a film circling the book, eyeing it uncertainly and trying different kinds of styles and moods to see if anything fits.
Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones is a beautiful, thoughtful film, full of dark mystery and life affirmations, yet somehow it's lacking a certain inner strength.
With his garish, pointless and downright inept rendering of Alice Sebold's 2002 novel, The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson has hit a new low in the annals of movie adaptations.
Top CriticIf someone like Jackson could only manage mediocrity, one shudders to think what a less talented filmmaker would have produced.
A victim obsessed with the lives that go on without her is at the center of The Lovely Bones.
Top CriticHaunting mystery-drama examines a child's murder.
Despite good performances and slick design, its confused perspective leaves Bones as emotionally engaging as a visit to a particularly well-maintained kitsch shop.
This is a movie in which wonders truly never cease.
December 10, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Princess, Invictus Are Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got a Southern-fried fairy tale (The Princess and the Frog, with voice work from Anika Noni Rose and Keith David) and inspiration through rugby... More...
December 06, 2009:
The Lovely Bones in the running for Best Film 2009, for most passionately opposing violence against women. 
More...
November 02, 2009:
Examining Peter Jackson's Lovely Bones
He's become identified with big-budget epics like the "Lord of the Ring" movies and his "King Kong" remake, but Peter Jackson has his roots in supernatural thrillers -- making,... More...
August 11, 2009:
Trailer & Poster Review
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