- "In spite of the horrific act at the center of the story — the rape, murder and dismemberment of a 14-year-old girl — the novel is not depressing or assaultive but rather, somewhat perversely, warm, hopeful and even occasionally funny."
I agree with this description of both the movie and the book because although I cried at the end of the movie you get this warm feeling that everything is okay. You feel the sense of completion that Susie feels after she kisses the boy of her dreams. You see her face lights up when she reaches the tree and it has all the leaves on it's branches. While I was reading the book, the tone isn't presented as a girl SCREAMING out for help; it is a girl who is telling her story of a sick man and a poor girl who didn't fully get her justice but who wanted people to know what happened.
- "Accordingly Mr. Jackson’s interest in the “in-between,” as this suburb of heaven is called, is primarily visual. The drama is all down below, where the surviving members of the Salmon family contend with the loss of their eldest child."
Mr. Jackson's in-between world is sort of a maze for Susie. It is everything she ever wanted however she still feels extremely lonely. She has unfinished business left on earth and she tries to reach out to the people she loves in so many different ways. Her in-between world is a place where she is free to live like she never lived before but she doesn't want to because she sees the hurt that everyone is going through. At the end of the movie when the tree has all its leaves and she meets all the other girls; she says she still isn't ready and goes down to earth and does the one thing she had left to do.
- "The filmmakers’ evident affection for the book expresses itself as a desperate scramble to include as much of it as possible, which leaves the movie feeling both overcrowded and thin. "
This is so true because I personally always believe that books are better than their film, but Mr. Jackson tried so hard to incorporate most of the book into the film. However, there were some things he left like for example in the book they find her elbow, but in the movie they only find her hat and blood. Also in the book Susie and Holly have a mentor in their in-between world that is supposed to help them realize that they need to let go every tie they have to the real world; the movie doesn't include this character however.
Work Cited :
Scott, A. O. "Gazing Down, From a Suburb of Heaven, at an Earthly Purgatory.,
" Movie Reviews Showtimes and Trailers - Movies - New York Times
- The New York Times. 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.
- The New York Times. 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.
<http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/movies/11lovelybones.html>.
