#5 The Lovely Bones--Day 4

I absolutely love this book, so needless to say I have been waiting for this movie ever since I heard about it, 2 years ago. I feel that my perceptions of the movie are very flawed because I have read the book. Putting the book aside, it is a good movie, with an interesting plot line. Susie Salmon a 14-yr old who is raped and murdered by one of her neighbors watches her family from heaven as they seek to find her killer. The special effects when Susie is in the "in-between" are awesome. Frightening at some points, beautiful at some points. I really liked the way Susie's "in-between" and her families lives were somewhat synonymous. For instance, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Mark Wahlberg (her father) ruins all of his sailboats that he makes and in Susie's "in-between" she is on a beach and all of the sailboats are crashing into the shore. Stanely Tucci is just as creepy as usual; therefore, perfect for his role as the murderer, and Susan Sarandon does a very job at portraying the eccentric grandmother.
Overall, my biggest problem with the movie was that it didn't follow the book. (A typical book-to-movie qualm.)At over 2 1/2 hours Peter Jackson spends too much time in the "in-between" and not enough time developing the plot. The ending strays from the book, the actual murder scene is pretty much non-existent, and her mother's affair with the chief of police is not even in the movie.

3 out of 5.

The Book of Eli comes out today, too. Woo-hoo. Mila Kunis is hot!