The REAL Steve Gray

In the course of an interview with CNN to push the DVD release of flop ‘The Lovely Bones’, Peter Jackson makes some strange pronouncements. And these are all quotes……

1. ‘I wouldn’t change a thing. The film is very much what we set out to make.’

What rubbish. Everyone knows films are made in the editing room. Everyone knows Jackson and his writing partners are notorious re-writers on the set with actors always getting script changes at the last minute. And why was Michael Imperioli so pissed off about all the scenes that covered his affair with the Mother character that were filmed and then cut from the film? Why film something if you knew at the time you were never going to use them? Because you didn’t, and I think very few filmmakers would have a complete idea of what their film will look like in the end while filming it.

2. I think it’s a difficult film… To actually go to the movies is a particular thing that you make a decision to do, and to go and see a film essentially about a 14-year-old girl who’s murdered – I can imagine that’s not necessarily going to be at the top of everybody’s list as a must-see film…..’

And that is the problem. While the BOOK is about moving on from tragedy, HOW we move on from tragedy, and most importantly, how someone can effect our lives and we may not even be aware of it. The film is essentially about a girl who disappears; we never see the murder nor is the body found so the parents never even have that, so the film turns into teen girl afterlife porn. Or to quote a great review from legendary film critic, Roger Ebert….

“The Lovely Bones” is 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. You can get together in heaven with the other teenage victims of the same killer, and gaze down in benevolence upon your family members as they mourn you and realize what a wonderful person you were. Sure, you miss your friends, but your fellow fatalities come dancing to greet you in a meadow of wildflowers, and how cool is that?

Woo! Harsh, but totally true. The film has none of the joy of discovery the book has, and when the film quotes the book at the end to state….
‘I looked down to see how my lovely bones had spread’……
How I laughed as the film has none of the sophistication of the book and shyed away from addressing the characters with any honesty.

3.’Hopefully on DVD it’ll have a slightly easier audience, because watching a DVD doesn’t have the monumental decision that going out to the movies has.”

Funniest quote ever! Because it is cheaper on DVD, hopefully people won’t care about blowing their money on a crap film?

I would so like to have seen what happened if original director Lynne Ramsey had made ‘The Lovely Bones’ film. She directed the excellent ‘The Ratcatcher’ and ‘Morvern Callar’. I think her touch was what the story required. Not childish effects and a total inability to display honest and raw emotions.

Photo Credit:a7.vox.com

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