I'm not sure how so much could go wrong on this film. It seemed like a pretty sure thing: a book that has been very widely acclaimed and read as a work of sad life-and-death meditation from a 14 year old girl looking down or somehow from the "in-between", a kind of purgatory, after being raped and murdered, on her family and killer. It seems like the stuff that could make for some harrowing dramatic material... or, possibly, a sappy story. It turns out Jackson takes the latter route, but there's more than that wrong here. It's a giant miscalculation that has a few moments of real impact and where the performances match up with the material.

Maybe it's just a general attitude that Jackson and his writers, wife Fran Walsh and Philippa Bowens, take from the book. What might have been poignant observations, for example, from the girl Suzie Salmon (like the fish) becomes a series of really jagged narration in the film that is a) poorly written, b) in a continuously ineffective and/or annoying tone from Saoirse Ronan (who is not bad in the film, by the way, when the material requires it),and c) it's redundant. We see her sights in this in-between world, moving about and in quick motions without consistency, though as with Avatar one might say at least it's "pretty", and her descriptions are at best unnecessary and at worst just stupid. It's some of the worst use of narration last year (compare it to The Informant! and see how much of a drop-off it is).

But narration is just one thing. Another is a lack of focus in the story, and actually getting to really care about any one of the living characters. It's not really the actors fault, as Wahlberg, Weisz and Imperioli do what they can in their roles (Wahlberg especially, in spite of everything, throws himself into the devastated father well). When it comes time for us to really get into the emotional grit and horror of this situation, of how horrible it really is, it's actually glossed over by Suzie's situation up in the in-between. There isn't a solid 'conflict' about who the killer is since it's revealed in the first few minutes of the film. On top of this the logic on Stanley Tucci's character is all-too obvious - it's a perfectly creepy performance, but a little subtlety might have helped. And then there's the lush grandmother played by Susan Sarandon that is used for very ill-timed and unfunny comic relief midway through the movie, after which she's pushed aside to a reactionary role.

And yet I didn't have as big a problem like some critics have had, which is with the in-between itself and its visual scheme. While it's not as imaginative as Jackson seems to think it is, it does reflect, more or less, what a 14 year old girl's emotional state would be in an afterlife world. It's more-so a problem when Jackson deals with balancing this fantasy afterworld with the real one, and the rules of how Suzie reaches out to those is never firmly established (the one girl she brushes against running down the street is one thing, her parents and sister are another). It's not so much the sights but, again, a mood and attitude that Jackson botches: what is with this Asian girl that accompanies Suzie? It's explained, to be sure, as are the other victims of Tucci's child killer, but the attachment she has with her previous life and family is screwy, it becomes muddled and unsatisfying.

I would almost stop short... no, I would just about claim that this is close to being the kind of cloying, sappy crap that one would usually find its way onto Lifetime, where struggles are put to melodramatic limits, and by the end every plot strand, no matter how unlikely, is resolved (one of those, involving Rachel Weisz's character, is just ridiculous in its timing). And yet for all of the story and character problems, for all the clunky dialog, Jackson has a few moments where he can let his actors have room to breathe. Chief of these are scenes involving suspense, when Suzie is in the lair of the man who will kill her, which is a gradual scene of weird intensity, and then later a scene where Tucci comes into his house while Suzie's sister is snooping around. Little glimmers of the kind of filmmaker one saw from fifteen years ago on another movie about teenage girls and the fragility of life and death and love, Heavenly Creatures, in such real dramatic clarity and power. But that's all really.

The Lovely Bones has so much that could go right with it that it's most disappointing how wrong it goes. It takes someone with as much talent and passion as Jackson to screw up on this level. He and his writers have not made an exactly boring movie, but it could very well be for some in the audience. I found myself shaking my head and frowning at what I saw, a watered down vision of reconciling grief and loss, and at best a mixed-bag of a story surrounding a not-whodunit about a child killer. Some may be moved, and more power to them. I couldn't wait for this wishy-washy journey to end.

I have read the book. I loved it, I thought it was both chilling and heartbreaking with a fine story and credible characters. I do think it is much better than the film, which was solid enough but lacking a strong emotional core.

I will start with the film's faults. The story is a very intriguing one, but it is quite slow complete with holes and any parts that strived to be heartbreaking came across as mawkish. The script is quite weak often, particularly with Susan Sarandon's character in the sense that it is never quite sure which direction it wants to go. But what hurt the film most was some aspects of Peter Jackson's direction. Jackson is a good director don't get me wrong, but he does make some decisions that detract from the impact of the story rather than enhance it. Especially with the CGI, not that it was bad CGI in fact it looked quite good, what I mean was that there was a complete overload of it and I think some of it was unnecessary.

However, the film does look absolutely beautiful, with beautiful scenery and cinematography. The score gives a haunting, eerie and intoxicating quality too. While the story is flawed, there is a good atmosphere especially in the more chilling scenes, where they are quite chilling and that's an understatement. Apart from two performances, the acting is quite good. The best performance comes from the very promising child actress Saiorse Ronan, who is just tremendous here. Stanley Tucci is very chillingly effective too, and Mark Wahlberg is surprisingly good. The two performances I wasn't so taken with were Rachel Weisz, who is wasted, and the normally solid Susan Sarandon, who overplays quite badly.

All in all, an okay if inferior adaptation. 6/10 Bethany Cox

What is it with Peter Jackson? The guy is capable of making excellent movies (BRAINDEAD, the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) yet, like Spielberg, he keeps making films that should have been great which end up flawed (the KING KONG remake for one). THE LOVELY BONES is his worst yet, a truly disappointing adaptation of a popular novel about a teenage girl who's murdered and finds herself in a kind of limbo while her family struggle to come to terms with their loss.

The film feels watered down and weak. The set-up is fine, and all goes well through the murder and Susie's realisation that she's dead and in some kind of dream/fantasy world that's not quite Heaven. Here the film falls apart with another overly bloated running time and a distinct lack of momentum. I was looking forward to some ruminating on the afterlife, but what we get instead is Jackson letting rip with his CGI dreamscape. There are so many pretty effects going on at all times that narrative drive is totally forgotten about.

Back on Earth, things are a little more interesting, although not much. Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci give the best performances as the grieving father and sinister killer respectively. However, the female roles in this film are appalling, with Rachel Weisz playing an unforgivably unsympathetic character (I hated her more than the killer) and Susan Sarandon's bizarrely-judged comic relief role just coming across as, quite frankly, embarrassing. Are we really meant to burst into laughter at her shenanigans considering the maudlin nature of all that's come before?

The film does feature flashes of inspiration in places, revealing what it could have been. A suspense sequence in which Susie's sister Lindsey finds herself in grave danger is very well realised, but such moments don't sustain the lengthy run time. Wahlberg's nice-guy personality and Tucci's dodgy behaviour aren't enough to keep us entertained either. Saoirse Ronan is pretty weak, I thought, and I was never once moved by her character's plight as I should have been. No, THE LOVELY BONES is a definite missed opportunity and I hope Jackson rediscovers some of his former magic with his forthcoming Hobbit movies.