The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones (2010)

Director-Peter Jackson

Rated 10/10 Unmissable by the Daily Star

Cast- Mark Wahlberg

         Rachel Weiz

         Susan Sarandon

         Stanley Tucci

         Michael Imperioli

         Saoirse Ronan

Genre- Thriller

Music-Brian Eno

The soundtrack for 'The Lovely Bones'

The non-diegetic soundtrack if very effective as it builds emotion and tension.

The lovely bones' directed by Peter Jackson is said to be one of the best films of 2010. It is about a girls life and everything that came after.  The 14 year old girl Susie Salmon is murdered by one of her unsuspecting neighbors Mr Harvey. After her murder, for a while she believes she is alive but soon discovers that she has died. She also leaves her unfinished life behind and looks back on how things are and what could have been.

The effects in this scene are very effective as well as the camera shots. It gives a creepy, something is going to go wrong feeling. The viewer starts to become very worried for Susie. The silence used is really effective as it makes the viewer watch and listen even closer and the slightest sounds then create more of an effect. Camera angles such of the high angle shot of Susie makes her look small and venerable and the low angle shot makes Mr Harvey look very powerful. The sudden music when she attempts to escape creates a jumpy effect and a shock telling the viewer something bad has happened. The sudden cut at the end leaves the viewer in suspense wondering if she is dead or alive. 

'The Lovely bones'  uses a McGuffin which is Susie's camera roles, her mother and father want to get these developed because of a promise they made her before she died.  However this later gives a hint to the father which leads to him finding her murderer.

There is lots of tension built in the film which frustrates the viewers. This is because the murder is revealed at the beginning and the whole way through we just want him to get found out. The action in 'The Lovely bones' isn't as fast as it is in other thrillers such as in Alfred Hitchcock's films but it is an archetypal thriller in many ways. Such as action, fear, suspense and tension. It also uses effective diegetic and non diegetic sounds.