★ ★ 1/2

Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones (adapted from the novel by Alive Sebold) is a polarizing experience. Saoirse Ronan (one of my favorite young actors) is excellent in a story that doesn’t give her character enough to do. She plays Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl who is murdered, and finds herself “In Between” earth and heaven. From here she can watch her family and friends as they struggle to cope with her death. Occasionally one of them feels as if they saw her or felt her presence.

The problem is, the In Between world doesn’t feel very fleshed out. Susie wanders around, seeing things that connect in some way to the “real world”, but don’t necessarily add anything to the story. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if she had something specific to accomplish there? For the first forty-five minutes, The Lovely Bones is quite good. Jackson takes his time establishing Susie’s character and her relationship with her parents (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz), her siblings, and her friends. She’s a good kid. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched by a man who lives across the street. His name is George Harvey and he’s played by Stanley Tucci in a very good performance that succeeds in getting under your skin. We watch as Harvey designs and builds the underground room in which he will trap his victim. That he goes to all this work and does it without any trace of emotion…well, let’s just say that George Harvey has some issues.

The scene in which Susie is lured and eventually trapped by her killer is the best in the film. Jackson cuts between the abduction and Susie’s family having their nightly dinner. The mundane conversation between the parents and her siblings is enough to drive us mad. And watch Saoirse’s performance, as she falls for Harvey’s trap, and then gradually realizes what is going on.

Once the film moves to the In Between world, things fall apart, for reasons I’ve mentioned. But there are two very strange sequences I have to point out. One consists of Susie and her Chinese friend (whom she meets there) dancing around and running through fields like they haven’t a care in the world. It has all the over-saturated colors and buoyant CG visuals of a Target commercial. And yet, when we later return to the In Between world, things are dismal once again. The other sequence involves Susan Sarandon as Susie’s grandmother. She comes to stay with the kids, and begins to dance around the house as she cleans. This lasts for the length of a song, at the end of which we return to the story.

Just what in the world was the point of either? These sequences seem indicative of the whole film. All good ideas, thrown into a pot, but without any clear purpose. Well, maybe the Target commercial wasn’t a good idea.

Despite its shortcomings, there are things to appreciate about the film. Saoirse Ronan is wonderful. It is well-made from a technical point of view, with a nice sense of style, thanks to its 1970s setting. The music by Brian Eno is haunting and evocative. The editing is top notch. The real problem here seems to be in the script by Jackson and his writing partners, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It’s a shame. These really could have been some lovely bones.