A maverick double-bill for me today, commemorating a well earned day off with some solid cinema.
First up was Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, an adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel of the same name. A beautiful film in many ways, I think my enjoyment of it was bolstered significantly by the fact it was a Peter Jackson film, its beauty and gravity was almost expected. lacking some of the more graphic aspects of the novel (Susie's murder is tellingly brief), the film often seems tame and overly romantic. Its bleak, but there is almost an overwhelming sense that everything is going to be okay, a feeling not present in the novel until the final chapters. Recognition as usual must go to WETA for creating Susie's in-between world, which is essentially purgatory with added wish fulfillment.
Its obvious by now that Jackson works well with actors and he doesn't disapointment here, squeezing a thoughtful performance from Mark Walhberg as Susie's grieving father and a career best from Stanley Tucci as Susie's murderer. The film is almost stolen by Susan Sarandon, who provides consistent comic relief as the drunken grandmother.
The Lovely Bones is a great film, Jackson has delivered a low key follow up to his two gigantic blockbuster (LOTR and King Kong, duh!).
Next up came Natural Born Killers, a film I re-visited to remind me that Woody Harrelson was cool way before Zombieland. It has energy to spare and as a red hot poker up the ass of the media, it works, but its ultimately hollow. Style over substance, NBK is only noteworthy thanks to some Grade A performances, chief among them a wired Robert Downey Jnr and the effortlessly cool Woody.
A blood soaked antidote to the sombre, thoughtful Lovely Bones.
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