The Lovely Bones... not so lovely actually

Yesterday I watched Peter Jackson latest movie "The Lovely Bones". What can I say? I love Peter Jackson! I mean you must love a man that made a movie like "Brain Dead" and then created "Lord of the Rings".... I find that really fascinating! However, I have to admit I did not really like "Lovely Bones"! I think it's not a bad movie but it didn't really capture my whole attention... Actually I was wondering how I would look like with all over glitter make-up and that is not really a compliment for a movie that deals with such a heavy issue like child murder and abuse.

Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon

The film is about Susi Salmon, a 14 year old girl that gets murdered by the next door neighbour and is trapped in a world between heaven and earth. She tries to communicate with her family and wants to lead them to her murderer.
One thing that totally threw me out of the movie was Peter Jackson's use of a music tune that sounded awfully like a 90's Enya song... It's just too much! Not that I have a grudge against Enya but if you don't want your movie to become a shampoo spot you should postpone your Enya-esque song for the end credits! En top of that the animated heaven just looked like... well an animated heaven! It reminded my a lot of the empty fantasy worlds shown in "Doctor Parnassus", which one of my friends described as a reminiscense to that "not so good" Madonna video for "Love Profusion".

Susan Surandon as the fabulous granny

Well one thing I loved about the movie was Susan Surandon's character of Susie's grandmother! How could one not love a non-stop drinking, chain smoking granny that looks like an extroverted and failed movie diva? Although she kind of feels a little random, she really gives the movie a little something something! Saoirse Ronan, the girl that plays Susie was also a good choice I think, she really is a sweetheart and you like her the first time you see her (meaning I want to adopt her and manage her income!).
After all I feel a little bit disappointed... Maybe I was hoping for something like "Heavenly Creatures", which I really loved (although I will never forgive my sister for showing it to me when I was nine!!!!)... But "The Lovely Bones" just isn't a satisfying viewing experience. Oh by the way I just saw that the music I refered to is not really by Enya but by The Mortal Coil and is called "Song to the Siren". Nevertheless it still does the film no good!
So we have a nice cast, partly bad music, bad animated effects (you see I'm not really into CGI as long as it isn't really really good!) and I also think the pacing of the movie is a little bit off... Maybe Peter Jackson should have edited a little more but it seems like after "Lord of the Rings" he has the jester's license to do whatever he wants (don't hide "King Kong" I can still see you). By the way if you wanna see a good movie that deals with a theme like child abuse you should check out Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin"!