While The Lovely Bones is told from a
deceased person's point of view, it is not a fantasy. The film version devotes so much
time to the fantastical elements of Susie's time in Heaven, that much of the gritty
reality of a family's coping with the brutal murder of their daughter/sister is somewhat
lost. I think that much of the fantasy feel of the movie came from Peter Jackson who
also directed/produced The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The
problem is that Sebold's novel focuses most on the harsh splintering of the Salmon
family because of Susie's death--not on Susie's posthumous fantasy world. Much of what
makes the novel such a popular read is Sebold's portrayal of reality; in fact, if
someone first reads Sebold's memoir Lucky which chronicles her
being raped and coping with the aftermath, much of The Lovely Bones
becomes even more real to the reader.
So, while
critics of film versions of popular books often cite characterization or event
discrepancies as reasons for not appreciating the movie version, The Lovely
Bones is different in that the filmmaker actually changes the book's focus
and tone which to me is a more significant alteration than leaving a couple events out
here and there.
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