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The Lovely Bones
Released: 2009
Setting: Pennsylvania in 1973
Genre: Drama/Horror
Rating: PG-13
The Lovely Bones synopsis
I first saw The Lovely Bones (available to rent here) around 10 years ago as a teenager. It stayed with me so much I wanted to read the book after (on Amazon here). Spoiler alert, the movie was better. Anyway, I recently came across a YouTube analysis of The Lovely Bones movie and knew I wanted to see it again. The video discussed how this movie focused on the emotional distress of being murdered and the process of coming to terms with it, rather than the physical horror. This is such an interesting distinction. Many of these horror movies rely on surface level shock value, rather than going deeper for the victim. And I don’t know about you, but spare me the gore, what I want to see are these complex processes play out on screen. I also liked how the movie aimed to tell a realistic story, while at the same time it was of subject matter beyond our knowledge: what happens after death. This put it in a unique category.
Susie introduced herself to us in the beginning of the movie after she already passed on, showing us her family, her crush on a senior at school and her love for photography. Then, we saw her descent into a murderous neighbor’s trap. She went from a regular 14 year old to prey in a matter of minutes. Though she passed on, she became trapped in a limbo between this world and the next and couldn’t move on. Both the audience and Susie waited to see if justice would be served.
The Lovely Bones analysis
After rewatching The Lovely Bones I saw it from a new angle. I saw it as not just the story of Susie, someone who had been murdered. It was and is the story of many, whether in the past or present. We all go through things that require closure and that closure doesn’t always come so easily. That in between state Susie was held captive in could be a state we were in or are going through now, while very much alive.
And I would guess that sometimes being in this “waiting room” while alive can be harder than after death. Why? In death there’s more clarity. While alive, people may not even realize they’re stuck in limbo. But even though it can be harder, it’s still a gift. It might seem as though they’re as helpless as Susie was, but they’re not. Once they realize they’re trapped, unable to move forward, they can work on expanding their consciousness and creating their own inner closure.
My final thoughts on The Lovely Bones
I so appreciated the movie’s willingness to address unknown topics like the afterlife, and to go deep into emotional processes, like grief. It’s so important for us to see hard hitting emotions play out on screen. I’m sure it would have been easier for the producers to distract with violence and gore, as the YouTube analysis I saw pointed out. Instead we got to see how anger, which Susie’s father chose, was a way to avoid the deep grief that her mother was forced to face. This distraction made sense, as anger is higher up on the emotion scale. It’s grief that is a harder feeling to feel. The Lovely Bones did a great job making grief easier to digest for anyone who needs to feel it for whatever reason.
My rating: 9/10.
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