The Lovely Bones

If you’re a film studio and you’ve got an ‘unfilmable’ novel to adapt, who do you call? Easy. Peter 'Lord Of The Rings' Jackson that’s who. Having crafted a near-perfect cinematic realisation of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth trilogy, Jackson is an ideal choice to translate Alice Sebold’s hit 2002 novel to the big screen – and he delivers. Again co-scribing with partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens in a way that’s loyal to the book without being slavish, the New Zealander tells a heartbreaking tale that is both strongly grounded in dreary reality yet often imaginatively fantastical.

Just as she’s experiencing first love and finding a passion for photography, sweet 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is murdered by her creepy neighbour (Stanley Tucci). As her parents (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz) and sister (Rose McIver) struggle to cope and hold the family together, Susie watches over them from a place in between heaven and earth.

Some might worry that the mix of real-world drudgery and floaty astral-plane happenings makes for a conflicting movie – but it doesn’t. In fact, Jackson holds everything together remarkably well considering all he manages to pack in - a moving teen romance, an emotional family drama, a find-the-serial-killer thriller, a dreamy afterlife fantasy. Being honest, there’s a jarring change of tone midway through when the grim grieving is interrupted by a brief scene in which Susie’s boozy Granny (a funny and still-hot Susan Sarandon) plays with the youngest offspring, but it still works wonderfully and serves as a nice smile-inducer after all the serious goings on.

Nitpicks? Well, it feels a bit long and a more satisfying ending might have lifted it up a star notch. Regardless, whether we’re marvelling at Jackson’s lavish heavenly vistas or gripped with suspense as sister Lindsay (McIver – doing a lot with not very much), it’s involving stuff that often pulls the heartstrings. Of course, it does so largely thanks to Ronan’s central performance as the impossible-not-to-love Susie Salmon (“like the fish”), the Atonement star giving a masterclass in how to steal hearts. The rest of the cast are also largely flawless and Stanley Tucci deserves credit in spades for his creepy turn as the girl-grooming monster of the piece. Best of all though is the haunting and beautiful score by Brian Eno, which gives the movie a truly poignant touch.

Beautiful, creative, moving, suspenseful, intelligent, hearty… another cracker from Peter Jackson. In a word, lovely.