Director Peter Jackson has taken Alice Sebold's novel about time healing wounds and focused on the supernatural elements of the story. Fans of the book will miss the complexity. But what he does accomplish is a visually inventive ode to the loss of life at a young age. He does this on the shoulders of his star Saoirse Ronan.
Susie Salmon (Ronan, ATONEMENT) is a teenager full of life. She has a crush on a handsome British Indian boy named Ray Singh (Reece Ritchie, 10,000 B.C.). She talks to her grandmother Lynn (Susan Sarandon, DEAD MAN WALKING) about her fears that she won't be any good at kissing. But as she tells us from the start, she won't even have a chance to try because she will be dead soon.
From the in-between place between Earth and heaven, Susie struggles with the life she will never have. She watches as her family tries to cope. Her loving father Jack Salmon (Mark Wahlberg, THE DEPARTED) desperately tries to hunt down every possible lead no matter how far fetched. This of course tests the patience of the chief detective Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli, TV's THE SOPRANOS). It also tests the patience of his wife Abigail (Rachel Weisz, THE CONSTANT GARDENER), who can't even drum up the strength to go in Susie's old room. The tragedy weighs heavy on their marriage and their other children Lindsey (Rose McIver, THE PIANO) and Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale) feel the strain.
But Susie doesn't just watch her family. She watches her killer as well. George Harvey (Stanley Tucci, JULIE & JULIA) is one of their neighbors. He's awkward and manipulative. This isn't the first time he's killed. Through experience, he knows how to deal with cops when they come asking questions. But he's less skilled when the father of his victim shows up. Tucci disappears into the character. Knowing what he's done, he's a twitchy fellow. He's evaded capture so long because he knows how to hide his crimes. As a controlled killer, he meticulously plans his crimes and lives off the memories of his obsessions for long periods of time.
Susie is desperate to reach out to her family and ease their pain. She's in a better place — a world of her own making where she can make anything happen that she imagines. But when she dwells on the past, pain sinks in and the fantastic, brightly colored world crumbles away. In this world, a girl her age named Holly (Nikki SooHoo, STICK IT) tries to guide her through the transition, but she keeps going back to watch Earth.
For the sake of time, many of the book's characters are condensed. Some are merely cameos like Ray's mom and Lindsay's boyfriend. Abigail's struggle is simplified. Ray's relationship with Ruth (Carolyn Dando), a teen in touch with the otherworld, is abbreviated. The entire timeframe is shortened. But Jackson does take time to build scenes of great tension. It plays on the thriller elements in the story and underlines the fear Susie felt at her time of death. That fear is key to Susie moving on.
At times Jackson dwells too long on the fantasy elements. But in the end, he brings the various threads together through Susie. Ronan, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for ATONEMENT, deserves to be nominated once again. Watch as she subtly goes through the levels of loss. There was a touch of wish fulfillment in the book that remains in the film that actually works better. Because Jackson focuses his story on her, the moment doesn't seem out of place. It shows Susie's passion and the perseverance of her soul. Ronan is amazing at capturing not just the loss of the character, but also the hope. Is there a better feeling to evoke in a film about heaven?
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
