Heaven and in between.....

“Cinefit”, this is my favorite spot in Fitness First. A Cardio Theater as what they call it, a cinematic inspired interior design with a large LCD screen (I don’t how big it is though but I’ll ask if anyone is interested) and in front is where the tread mills and stationary bikes are installed. While some maybe distracted with this multi-task cardio scheme(watching a film while at the same time running) for me, it’s a different sense of feeling. Since I have these keen interests in movies were I get easily absorbed(whatever or wherever the situation is) it makes me less sensitive of how I feel physically and that makes my 10k cardio routine a flyby.

So there I was as usual, and a reel is already onset but I don't know what the title is so I ask the person beside what's playing, what I heard from him is Mrs. Jones or Bones or sounding like that. I didn't bother to clarify it. 

Anyhow what I'm seeing in the screen is an American high schooler brimming with youth, life and expectations. Everything seems perfect, a perfect family, a perfect place. So I thought maybe this is just another typical family drama or a chick flick. But as the movie progresses, it gradually arouse my interest as its slowly becoming a no ordinary reel and yes, it is no ordinary film.

The movie brought me to some questions that science and religion hasn’t been really answered.

Photo inset courtesy of link

Is there really a place between heaven and earth? Is there an existence after death? Are you a believer of Ghosts, poltergeists, angels, and spirits? Do they have means or medium to communicate to those who are in earth? 

I think this is where film makers argue and struggled, to literalize or depict after life or what heaven is really like? Whose one work can be considered  are real- afterlife depiction, no one can I believe. Heaven as most pictured, it as a sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe and beyond. While after life, perhaps in plain logic for it to be pictured, proved or to be disproved one has to undergo physical death. Some say just being conscious of our existence suggests that there may be a life after death. (there hasn't been any director who died and lived to direct a movie about his post death experience, right?)  But we are not here to discuss afterlife, pursuing such subject will be an endless debates and infinite arguments. Now I have to know what the movie title is….

The movie is "The Lovely Bones" directed by Peter Jackson as he tried to depict the existence of the "After life". The story is based from the novel of Alice Sebold. Set in Suburb American town 1973  where a 14 year old Susie Salmon is murdered then trapped in transcendental realm where she resides as the story narrator. She watches her family in grieve of her loss while at the same time seeing her killer on the loose. Now she must weigh her desire between vengeance or her family to heal.



Photo courtesy of link. Here we see Susie bonding with his father.

Susie lives her life posthumously sending clues and signals about her murderer through various mediums. She showed signs to her father and little brother (bet it's a scary feeling). From the beginning, the killer is an obvious sight a creepy neighbor named Mr. Harvey, a spot easy perv with a mustache who we notice unnaturally watching her. And one fatal day she was lured into a room beneath the cornfield, with toys and comic books. This is where she is locked and murdered.

While the anguished family is coping with her loss and grief, her father with relentless optimism refused to give up on catching the murderer. Then the quest became clear and her suspicious sister (Rose McIver) sneaks into Mr. Harvey’s house and found some evidence just when timely the killer is back and slowly climbs the stairs. Lindsey(Susie's sister) had to run for her life.(That's one bloodcurdling scary scene.)We found out later that her Mr. Harvey had a plot to her sister as well.

Photo courtesy of link. An anguished mother leaving her family.

This acclaimed print is quite a challenge for screen adaptation. The movie reduces Lovely Bones novel with some citable differences as well. One, there's no indication that Susie was heinously raped as she does in the novel, and she was murder off the screen. Both have their own notion of heavens and afterlife. The life after death in the movie showed a 14 year old girl raised on 70's pop culture and teen dreamed life with sceneries in amazement of Susie  while in Alice Sebold novel, one can create owns heaven that fits her fantasies and wishes. The book also acknowledges a reality of extramarital sex between young lovers. Susie made love with Ray through a medium, this part is shielded to the movie goers. In the end, quite a contrast as well, to the dramatic contrast between the menace of a killer (will he be caught?) and the grief of a loving father (can he avenge his daughter's death?). Sorry guys I suggest you to witness the conclusion by yourself.

All with these, the characters in the movie was justicely portrayed. We've seen quite remarkable performances from Rachel Weisz as a mother so anguished then leaving her family. Mark Wahlberg as a father so driven by grief that he lost his sense of reason; to Susan Sarandon as a chain-smoking grandmother who provided some comic relief in the movie while they undergo on the healing process.



Photo inset courtesy of link. Saoirse Ronan the with her blue
round eyes

Two however stands out, and it's another superior performance from "Saoirse Ronan" as a tortured victim seeking justice. (it's now not a wonder why she earned an academy nomination for "Atonement") and cute as ever with her astonishing glacier blue eyes. And goodness! I haven't known it was Stanley Tucci who played the sinister monster neighbor. His portrayal was sensational. I've seen his versatility as an actor and this surely added to this repertoire. I remembered him playing “Link” in "Shall we Dance”, the bald closet aspiring ballroom dancer, “Nigel” in “Devil Wears Prada’ and the one I recently watched "Paul Child" opposite to Meryl Streep in “Julie and Julia”.

The movie is a sad but hopeful; Peter Jackson made the movie with a conservative approach (I’m not sure though if novel readers are happy). His adaptation simply implies that there’s no need to fear death even by a horrifying way of being murdered. We’ve seen visions of the murdered girls as a happy clan of free spirits in what they so called "Heaven". He made it like a fairy tale with an intent to make it less upsetting for viewers.

Wrapping this up, the “The Lovely Bones” is a complex and unusual film, alluring and enthralling with great cinematography (we’ve seen the works of Peter Jackson “Lord of the Rings” right?) based from a Bestseller novel. If you however a print fan you might be upset how the movie ended. I suggest you to watch the movie and read the novel to both appreciate the art.


And a memorable quote from Susie Salmon, "I wasn't lost, or frozen, or gone... I was alive; I was alive in my own perfect world".