“Lovely Bones” draws hope from death
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Melissa Rhoad
December 16, 2009
Filed under Entertainment
The Lovely Bones is already stirring up Oscar buzz, as well as high anticipation of its movie theatre debut to occur on January 15, 2010.
Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson, is the story of a 14-year-old girl, Susie Salmon, from suburban Pennsylvania. Susie is murdered by her neighbor and tells her story from Heaven. She describes how the lives of the people around her have changed, all while attempting to get someone to discover the truth behind her tragic death.
In a conference call, Saoirse Ronan, the film’s lead actress in the role of Susie Salmon, was interviewed. Ronan has her own opinion on Susie’s Heaven and its depiction in the film.
“Susie’s in-between, we’ll just call it Heaven, is made up of elements of her life on earth and memories that she may have had, or things that would’ve been special to her,” said Ronan. “And you know, it’s beautiful where she is, and it’s happy. It’s sad.”
The “sad” Ronan speaks of originates with Susie’s rape and murder. It is a very delicate situation to put into a film that also tries to appeal to all audiences. Ronan describes it as being tastefully done with much of these events being left to the imagination.
Fifteen –year-old Ronan, originally from Dublin, Ireland, has a thick Irish accent which she did have to alter to play Susie from small town America.
“It was changed to an American accent, but it was slightly more on the Eastern side because it’s set in Pennsylvania,” said Ronan.
The film was set in Susie’s Heaven for much of the time, which happened to be some of Ronan’s favorite parts.
“I quite liked the stuff in Heaven, and we used a lot of blue screen. We had quite a lot of stunts. So I don’t think I could pick one, but Heaven was certainly my favorite part to shoot,” said Ronan.
Since the film was based off a novel, Ronan had the book available to her if she wanted it. However, Ronan chose not to read the book before filming. She said that she did read it after filming was completed.
“Sometimes it’s more important to just focus on the script, because it is a different way of telling the story, and it just makes sense to focus on that side of the story,” said Ronan.
The Lovely Bones deals with heavy subject matter like murder, the afterlife, and rape. But it ultimately delivers a much different message according to Ronan.
“I think that the story is trying to send out a message of hope,” said Ronan. “The film is ultimately about hope and love, and how you can get there.”
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