make no BONES about it...see the movie...

have you read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold? If you have not...you should. But do yourself a favor...see the movie FIRST.



having read this book several times (and by several, i mean at least 3 times), i had a certain expectation of the movie. admittedly, i was all assuming that some massive injustice was about to take place as i took my seat for the viewing of the big screen adaption. my expectation was that director, peter jackson completely butchered the book (pun not intended). c'mon, i was trying to be realistic here. we know how a "movie based on the best selling novel" usually goes. but at the last minute, i decided that i could watch the movie with an open mind (translate: pretend that i'd never read the book) and relieve myself of any predetermined opinions that I might have (did) form based on reviews of friends who saw the film before i had the opportunity. and i have to say, i walked away pleasantly surprised.

however...

mr. jackson, while depicting the story semi-close to the way it's written, there were a couple key elements that i felt that you grossly overlooked. firstly, i think you missed the mark on developing the characters of Ray & Ruth. these two characters forge a remarkable friendship within the pages of the book. i would have loved to have seen more of that on screen. another missed mark, in my opinion, was lack of relationship between the detective & susie's parents, specifically her mother. also during the scenes when her mother returned from her lil "healing hiatus." i don't recall the book handling the reunion as an immediate happy reconciliation of the family. i plan on reading the book again as soon as i can recover my copy (still packed from moving). i feel the need to refresh on this, just to be certain.

overall, i believe it was a good movie. i'm confident now that the B+ rating that i saw posted on Yahoo! was well deserved. on a side note, i did watch the movie with someone who'd never read the book. she informed me that she will be reading the book ASAP as she rambled on briefly about how much she liked the movie and she's eager to compare the two. it'll be interesting to hear what she has to say as well...