Peter Jackson is usually a very competent director. Hell, he's a skilled director who can take any concept he wants to tackle and tackle it with great prowess almost never failing. With "The Lovely Bones" the man doesn't seem to be hitting his stride and instead looks to be sleepwalking through what could have been an excellent film. I never read the novel before but I felt that was what would give me the ability to see through what Jackson was attempting to accomplish. Instead what I received from his latest was a story that was often confused about what it was trying to say. He seems to want to jump on every theme and plot point possible and this causes a cluster fuck in its focus hopping from character to character from perspective to perspective. Is it a story about our perception of heaven? Is it about a guardian angel leading the hunt for her killer? Is it a parable about god and what our perceptions of heaven are? Or is it more about the collapse of the family unit under the weight of great tragedy? Neither. And this leads Jackson's opus to feel completely genre and tone confused. It goes from dark and gritty, to light hearted and warm, to melodramatic and sometimes emotionally manipulative. Sure the routine aspects of a story involving tragedy is there but it's conducted in such a haphazard way that not even the cast can save what occurs.
 

And just when we begin focusing on the inner workings of a pedophiliac serial killer Jackson opts for mild comedy in the middle of the story, which feels horribly misplaced and utterly unnecessary. Sarandon is in the film for no purpose other than to act as a comic relief in the lives of her family who are doing everything to find out who killed their beloved daughter Suzie. Sadly, we get only a glimpse of what effect Suzie's death has on her family.

We never get to the heart of their suffering and misery as Jackson sends the story's parental unit on different paths that make zero sense in the scheme of things while Suzie's own journey to the after life doesn't seem to have a real goal. Is she heading for heaven or is she doomed to endure the life of her killer and family subsequent her murder? There's never any real indication, so like everyone else here she wanders around in a haze while the story changes paces frequently. Jackson's had a great grasp on the supernatural before, and doesn't accomplish revealing the mystery and magic of it all. To top it all, the last act is so anti-climactic building up tension and suspense only for Jackson to completely dodge it offering nothing more than a heartfelt moment where he completely derails all the film was working towards from the beginning. Jackson is so lazy in his storytelling that he treats us to a surprise in the end which could have taken the chance to resolve the story and instead acts as a moment of heartbreak that fails to capture any emotion and instead invokes anger and irritation in the audience hoping for everything to end as it should have. Suzie's ghost has one chance to end it all and instead chooses to snog with the boy of her dreams?! So infuriating was the final act that I nearly gave up on "The Lovely Bones."