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THE LOVELY BONESMovie Reviews
Drama about a 14 year-old girl who, from Heaven, watches the earthbound aftermath of her own brutal rape and murder. Cast:Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Saoirse Ronan, Michael ImperioliDirector:Peter JacksonRelease Date:December 11, 2009DVD Release:April 20, 2010From:DreamworksRating:PG-13Length:2 hr. 16 min.
The Lovely Bones played to fair reviews. • David Ansen wrote in Newsweek, "...shuffling between thriller, police procedural, family melodrama, and mystical fantasy... its momentousness turns into silliness." • And Rene Rodriguez wrote in the Miami Herald, "Jackson bears down on the material with every special effect and camera trick in his arsenal. The result is almost suffocating..." More Reviews Below...
The Lovely Bones Positive Reviews (44 Reviews, reviews below)
Leah Rozen, People: WEAK(cg) "How much you like 'Bones' may depend on how strongly you believe in a neon-bright afterlife.... overwhelms slender material with garish special effects."(See all of Leah Rozen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 74 words, 12/10/09
Richard Corliss, Time: VERY GOOD "...engrossing, often enthralling... There are horror-movie elements here -- imagine a suburban 'Psycho' -- and echoes of 'Heavenly Creatures'..."(See all of Richard Corliss's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 587 words, 11/27/09
David Ansen, Newsweek: WEAK "...a hybrid of unmatching parts -- shuffling between thriller, police procedural, family melodrama, and mystical fantasy... its momentousness turns into silliness."(See all of David Ansen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 480 words, 11/30/09
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a sad-but-hopeful, dramatic-but-gentle fairy tale intentionally made less upsetting for teens.... Jackson forfeits depth for safe, surface loveliness."(See all of Lisa Schwarzbaum's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 469 words, 12/11/09
David Germain, Associated Press: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "The images often are striking... But the spectacle Jackson creates is showmanship, not storytelling, distracting from the mortal drama of regret and heartache..."(See all of David Germain's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 678 words, 12/10/09
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (12 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: FAIR "It pulses and blooms and swells with bright hues and strange vistas.... [but] it never achieves the delicate emotional coherence that would bring the story alive."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,125 words, 12/11/09
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: WEAK(cg) "...a deplorable film with this message: If you're a 14-year-old girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, you have a lot to look forward to."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 803 words, 01/14/10
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "Jackson's best move by far was casting young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan... she is the only element of the film that is exactly as it should be..."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 811 words, 12/11/09
Kyle Smith, New York Post: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Whew.... the afterlife is exactly like the album cover for a 1970s progressive-rock band. So ditch your moody blues and come sail away to the point of know return."(See all of Kyle Smith's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 652 words, 12/11/09
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: POOR "...too ham-handed to get under your skin. But sitting through it is still an ordeal.... Jackson's ineptitude isn't just disastrous -- it's sinful."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 401 words, 12/14/09
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "...sometimes poignant and often ridiculous.... Jackson consistently undermines the movie's uncanny elements by over-dramatizing events..."(See all of J. Hoberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 678 words, 12/09/09
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...thinks itself an achingly sincere film. But its maker has moved his soul into storage because he needed the space for more post-production equipment."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 235 words, 01/14/10
KEY CITIES (16 Reviews)
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: POOR(cg) "...flagrantly disobeys the first law of adaptation and indeed, of filmmaking in general: Get the tone right.... shapeless, overlong, mawkishly muddled..."(See all of Ann Hornaday's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 571 words, 01/15/10
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "...there's just something unsettling about public entertainment that's made from this particular variety of private suffering."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 684 words, 01/15/10
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: VERY GOOD(cg) "Should be incredibly moving, no? But there I sat, a guy with an embarrassing penchant for crying at movies, dry-eyed and cold as a fish."(See all of Chris Vognar's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 532 words, 01/15/10
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: WEAK(cg) "Jackson loses control of this tricky tale. And it is tricky, with its tone of grief and loss, but also hope and humor."(See all of Steven Rea's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 702 words, 01/15/10
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: POOR(cg) "It's as if the filmmaker, faced with an endless series of daunting creative choices, proudly took the wrong road each and every time."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 947 words, 01/15/10
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Jackson's adroit editing makes each sequence give urgency and momentum to the next.... Rarely has a film launched by a killing seemed so insistently alive."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 709 words, 01/15/10
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...an uneven offering with under-written characters that alters some of the book's better moments with no real rewards."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 438 words, 01/15/10
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...soulful, respectful, masterful, horrifying, rending and emotionally true. It may not be the 'Lovely Bones' that you have in mind, but it's a fine and powerful one."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 612 words, 01/15/10
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: VERY GOOD(cg) "...so much is so skillfully orchestrated, from the chillingly methodical villainy to the thrillingly paced manhunt, we can accept that we're in the hands of a higher power."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 368 words, 01/15/10
Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: GOOD(cg) "Maybe it's too timid, or bogus... or Jackson's visual panache got the best of him this time. Or perhaps some ideas should remain on paper..."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 579 words, 01/14/10
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Jackson overwhelms the thoughtful, introspective nature of the material with whistles and bells -- heavenly effects that scream 'overkill.' "(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 474 words, 01/15/10
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: WEAK(cg) "...almost suffocating: a movie that has been tinkered and fussed with until there is no spontaneity left -- no warmth or life or messiness."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 711 words, 01/15/10
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Jackson displays a deft grasp of the dismaying parallel universes of the ordinary and pathological.... beautifully splices the utterly familiar with the shattering."(See all of Lisa Kennedy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 675 words, 01/15/10
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (6 Reviews)
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "...sometimes poignant and often ridiculous.... Jackson consistently undermines the movie's uncanny elements by over-dramatizing events..."(See all of J. Hoberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 678 words, 12/09/09
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix: MODERATE(cg) "...giant beachballs loll in the surf and the leaves of a tree turn into a flock of goldfinches.... It looks like a piece of cake, but I still prefer Dante."(See all of Peter Keough's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 165 words, 01/14/10
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...thinks itself an achingly sincere film. But its maker has moved his soul into storage because he needed the space for more post-production equipment."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 235 words, 01/14/10
Tricia Olszewski, Washington City Paper: FAIR "Peter Jackson offers only -- forgive me-- the book's bare bones, and the cheerier ones at that.... a disservice to Sebold's emotional, thoughtful work..."(See all of Tricia Olszewski's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 314 words, 01/14/10
HIGHBROW PRESS (5 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: FAIR "It pulses and blooms and swells with bright hues and strange vistas.... [but] it never achieves the delicate emotional coherence that would bring the story alive."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,125 words, 12/11/09
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: MODERATE "I watched the film in an agitated space between engrossed and aghast.... If Reader's Digest did music videos they might look like this."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 678 words, 12/11/09
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "Jackson's best move by far was casting young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan... she is the only element of the film that is exactly as it should be..."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 811 words, 12/11/09
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...not without its tension, humor and compelling details. But it's also a simpler, more button-pushing tale that misses the joy and heartbreak of the original."(See all of Kirk Honeycutt's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 895 words, 11/30/09
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "Jackson's best move by far was casting young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan... she is the only element of the film that is exactly as it should be..."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 811 words, 12/11/09
A.O. Scott, New York Times: FAIR "It pulses and blooms and swells with bright hues and strange vistas.... [but] it never achieves the delicate emotional coherence that would bring the story alive."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,125 words, 12/11/09
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: MODERATE "I watched the film in an agitated space between engrossed and aghast.... If Reader's Digest did music videos they might look like this."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 678 words, 12/11/09
19.5 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
The Lovely Bones's reviews are separated by an average 19.5 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
The Lovely Bones (44 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:The Lovely Bones's reviews cover 93.2% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 24,620 words involume (average is 20,172 words). Length:The film's reviews average 560 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 54.7 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
The Lovely Bones's reviews on average broke 54.7 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is The Lovely Bones's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
The Lovely Bones (44 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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