The Lovely Bones: not a review, but thoughts.

I don't want to review this film, so I won't.  But here's some of the things I thought about while I was watching it.

Parental relationship

This started off so well, illustrating the changes experienced Abigail by the book she discards in order to make love to Jack.  Take one is a philosophical text whilst in a single College bed; take two, a double bed with a photograph of a baby on the bedside- a novel (I think) is thrown away in the heat of the moment.  By take three an older version of Susie is the subject of the photograph, and the pile of books by the bed are concerned with parenting and nutrition.  This element was what interested me most about the novel: the way that Abigail has to sacrifice her identity as an individual as she assumes her roles as wife and mother.  In the novel this is something Susie discovers by accident as she snaps a photo of her mother without her knowledge; the woman in the developed photo is almost unrecognisable to Susie. 


Marky Mark and his one face

Mark Whalberg wears some excellent shirts in the film, but he only has one expression. He does do concerned father well, but perhaps he could have stretched himself a little further. 

A teenager's view of heaven

Much of the criticism surrounding Sebold's novel concerned the lack of God in her rendering of heaven, similarly the film was also criticised for its CGI-heavy paradise.  Two points: first, the heaven we encounter through Susie is the narrow one.  Wide heaven, potentially the fluffy cloud, angel bedecked place where God lives, comes once you have relinquished your ties to Earth.  This draws me into point two: this is Susie's heaven.

Susie's heaven was far too bright and twee for my liking, but she is a young teenager in the 1970s and I wouldn't have expected anything less.  What I liked were the repeating motifs which tied disparate elements of the story together.  The large coloured ball which appears in the heavenly sky is associated with another girl's heaven; I don't want to give too much away, but this one of those instances where film trumps the written word: the seemingly casual placement of an object on screen which then reappears, forever linking two seemingly unassociated persons or events.  More about motifs later. 

My idea of heaven would include armchairs, novels and a steady supply of tea and biscuits.  Just so you know. 

Recurring motifs and Jackson's style

Hurrah! We're back to the motifs.  I always say that I'm a fan of Peter Jackson, yet I've not really watched a lot of his films, what I suppose I'm saying is that I'm a great fan of Heavenly Creatures.

Heavenly Creatures is a curious mix of macabre murder, an intense teenage friendship and some amazing fantasy worlds.  The film opens with the gruesome murder of  Honora Parker, one of the girls' mother, the audience are in no way shielded from the fact that this was a horrible, pre-mediated attack, but as the plot unfolds, telling how the girls got to this point, the end seems inevitable for poor Honora.  One is unexpectedly sympathetic with the plight of the girls who merely want to be together. 

Their intense relationship includes the creation of fantasy worlds and characters, notably the plasticine kingdom of Borovnia- real in every way, and the ethereal 'Fourth World': a heaven based around their cult of popular opera and film stars. These worlds, and the objects and characters that appear in it, seem innocent, but Honora's fate is sealed when objects from the girls' fantasy begin to appear in the real world and, for them at least, the line between fantasy and reality is irrevocably blurred.  It is one of these items, the pink jewel, which allows them the opportunity to distract her as the fatal blow is delivered.

Both Heavenly Creatures and The Lovely Bones share these repeated fantasy motifs.  The ships in bottles, an important bond between Susie and her father, appear as ice sculptures dashed on heavenly rocks.  The coloured ball, the Mall's gazebo and the charms from her bracelet- giant in heaven- are other such examples.  Jackson shies away from some of the more grisly aspects of Susie's murder, her rape isn't mentioned, but he does not spare the viewer in Heavenly Creatures.  One of the inventive techniques he uses to turn up and tone down the tension is the delicate application of music.  He uses arias, themselves echoes of the girls' Fourth World motifs, to cover periods of silence which are inevitably broken by more discordant sounds and events, this technique is brilliantly employed in the final scenes as Honora is lead to her death. 

Stanley Tucci and his portrait of practiced normality

Tucci's was the stand-out performance of the film, and rightly earned him an Oscar nomination.  His portrayal of George Harvey was one of quiet menace beneath the veneer of normality.  Harvey set alarm clocks to ensure he opened and closed his curtains at appropriate times, his verbal tick of 'okay' kept conversations which must have been an ordeal running smoothly.  Narrating from Heaven, Susie tells us that she didn't notice her killer even though he noticed her- the audience scans the screen, searching for a suspicious character- I didn't see Tucci's character, but poor, innocent, Mr O'Dwyer (about to suffer his own tragedy) gets my glare as he eats his hamburger: staring into the middle distance or staring at Susie?  Good directing. 

Susie didn't notice him and I didn't notice because he blends in, he hides in plain sight.  That is what is most frightening of all: his character can move around freely, take his time disposing of the body, because he seems so dammed normal. 

Grandma Lynn

Cool, smooth, classy and with a generous measure of sass, Grandma Lynn was my favourite character in the novel, and probably in my top ten grandma list- there's an post waiting to be written!  I was pleased when I heard Susan Sarandon would be playing her: I wasn't disappointed.  Fab montage scene as she cleans the house.

Picture: Was ophangen / Hanging out the laundry
Nationaal Archief / Spaarnestad Photo, SFA003003315
Vrouw hangt de was op, gebruikmakend van een hangbakje met wasknijpers, 1965.
That's a dutch lady hanging out her washing on a balcony, Netherlands, 1965.