Movie Review: The Lovely Bones

I read Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones in 2002 shortly after a close friend’s daughter died in a summer boating accident. We were both young parents back then – he with three young girls, and me with a four year-old daughter. My heart ached for him because, as a father, I could totally fathom the sheer and seemingly never-ending hurt flowing through his soul. Unexpected death is always a tragedy, but it seems the death of a child is particularly piercing and sad.

I mention this event because reading Sebold’s novel brought back the fear and horror of losing a child, but also cemented in my mind that which I already knew: The love between a father and his daughter is endless, brilliant and unlike any love on Earth. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to ensure the happiness and safety of my little girl. This, to me, is one of the messages of The Lovely Bones, both in book and film, and something film critics with negative things to say are missing, particularly Roger Ebert who gave the movie a burp above one star, calling it a “deplorable film” aimed at the Twilight crowd. He went on to write “the makers of this film seem to have given slight thought to the psychology of teenage girls, less to the possibility that there is no heaven, and none at all to the likelihood that if there is one, it will not resemble a happy gathering of new Facebook friends.” I think Ebert missed the boat, but I’ll get to that later.

… Continue Reading