The Lovely Bones is Peter Jackson’s take on the book of the same name, centering around the largely post-life deliberations of a girl witnessing the aftermath and shock to her family after she is abducted and murdered as a 14 year old girl.

It’s a heartrendingly tragic tale that swings from extreme grief and discomfort, to moments of joy and warmth, taking viewers through one of the most emotional film roller coasters of recent times. Although not any scenes of extreme violence, there are tense moments of anxiety that has your ribcage positively quivering from anticipation and dread. Most notable the part where you are thrown with claustrophobic effect, into the dungeon our abductor has created, to lure and capture Susie Salmon allowing us to bask in the dawning realisation that she isn’t getting out again.

As a father of two girls, this was extremely difficult to watch, but as a film lover, I was pleased with the method Jackson employed to pull at our grief strings in ways that were left largely to our imagination.

A very good cast of strong performances, from Mark Wahlberg’s grief stricken father, to the amazingly beautiful Rachel Weisz’s mother, wracked with pain enough to send her into oblivion.

No Jackson film is complete without a heavy heap of sugar by way of gratuitous special effects. A master of talent, we’re graced with amazing depictions of the inbetween world, with a kaleidoscope of colour and texture, blending fantastical locations with the inner workings of a 14 year old girl. These moments provide both a massive respite to the overall grief of the film but also allows Jackson to crack his knuckles in allowing him to do what he does best.

As we’re taken through the film, the single thing I found myself longing for was for some form of retribution and justice. I won’t give away the end of the movie apart from saying I was mildly satisfied.

7/10

I think I can safely say that this is my perfect kind of movie. Slow building, classy, ridiculously good plot, superb soundtrack and haunting visuals.

Moon follows the life of an offshore engineer coming to the end of his three year contract. His utterly solitary life is a depressingly bleak presence on a vacant planet and the feeling of overpowering dread and near suicidal emotion is strong throughout as the film is bathed in dark colours, is devoid of familiar sounds and offers no comfort to neither our protagonist nor the audience as we suffocate in the hopelessness and despair of loneliness.

However, he does have a number of things to comfort him, such as the long distance, pre-recorded video messages from his wife and child on earth, providing him with incentive to drone on until his imminent collection and release.

A near fatal accident prematurely reveals the existence of a process involving engineers and their return, but discussing further provokes risk of serious spoilers – and boy is that a spoiler.

I’m a huge fan of Solaris, both the original and the much criticised remake with Clooney. Moon has many parallels, from the incredibly intelligent soundtrack down to the slow pace of the movie – both provoke existential contemplation with references to mans life in relation to the ‘grander design’.

Moon is a future classic and rates as one of the best films of 2009, if not the past decade. It’s one of those awesome films that has story and dialogue strong enough to support a stage play even in the absence of CGI. Imagine Event Horizon and Solaris, somewhere in that group of space dramas sits Moon.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ 

Now, a while later, the clip (that was never actually meant to be shown!) is available to download and view in beautiful HD. I’ve watched this 2m 57s clip about 20 times now in the past two days and I am still hungry for more. There is a pretty cool viral campaign that has gone on in the background for a while, right up to the launch of a replica Flynn’s arcade shop.

Some great articles here on this blog, together with download links to a high resolution HD Quicktime versions of the movie.

http://tronfaq.blogspot.com/