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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:10
Rotten:9
Average Rating:5.9/10
Genre: Dramas
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
The Lovely Bones does a fantastic job with revered, complex source material. As terrific on terra firma as it is audacious in its astral plane, it is doubtful we’ll see a more imaginative, courageous film in 2010.
Top CriticThe real let-down is its heavy reliance on overblown special-effects sequences to represent the celestial limbo.
Top Critic[Ronan] captures the uncertainty and intensity of thwarted teenage passions perfectly but, set against the artifice and the manipulative tendencies of the story, her admirable performance is rather swamped.
Top CriticIt's a great shame because Sebold's book showed us a world of pain, loss and love. That sense has been lost in translation.
So infuriatingly coy, and so desperate to preserve the modesty of its soulful victim that it amounts to an ongoing clean-up operation.
Top CriticJackson captures the grim essence of the novel even while compressing much of its character development and plot detail.
Lovely Bones is a touching, at times distressing film. It deals with loss, grief, rage, familial breakdown and love, most of all love. But it’s also energetic and entertaining.
The Lovely Bones is [Jackson's] most mature, self-assured and visually dazzling release.
The fancy visuals serve only to distract from the emotional impact.
A beautiful piece about how we love and the horrors of life that get in the way.
How do you literalize heaven? It's a problem moviemakers have struggled with forever, and Jackson hasn't solved it.
The film is a triumph of visual imagination over any story or substance, over-directed and over-acted and completely absent a beating heart.
As for the excess of Jackson's creative predisposition, heaven help us.
Peter Jackson returns to the engrossing and poetic imagery that earned him his name more than a decade ago.
Peter Jackson rounds out a fairly amazing decade as a filmmaker by anyone's standards with this sad, dreamy, hopeful film that defies easy genre classification or even summary.
A singular art film, Lovely Bones shows Jackson's determination to put his signature on each frame with surreal dreamlike meditation and special effects wizardry, which somehow remarkably maintain the tone of Sebold's novel about loss and mourning.
The film certainly plays well enough as a melodrama-cum-revenge thriller.
Top CriticJackson undermines solid work from a good cast with show-offy celestial evocations that severely disrupt the emotional connections with the characters.
Top CriticWhen else has the obscenity of child murder been the cause of such gravity and grace?
Top Critic
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
More...
August 05, 2009:
Trailer Bulletin: The Lovely Bones
Did you miss the Entertainment Tonight-hosted debut of the first trailer for "The Lovely Bones"? Not to worry -- Apple's got it posted for your enjoyment. More...
August 04, 2009:
Entertainment Tonight Unveils Lovely Bones Teaser
Entertainment Tonight is unveiling the first trailer for Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones" tonight -- but first, as has become their standard practice, they've teased it with... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 100% | The Red Shoes | 11/12 |
| 88% | Unmade Beds | 11/12 |
| 72% | Where the Wild Things Are | 11/12 |
| 67% | Carriers | 11/12 |
| 40% | The Limits of Control | 11/12 |
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