This is a hard movie for me to recommend for two reasons, the story’s subject is very disturbing and the movie is a little far from coherent. But when I think of a movie with some value to it, I can’t ignore this one.
“The Lovely Bones” is about a young girl who is murdered (I didn’t read the book, and they skip over the details in the movie, it might have been worse than just murdered), and her killer and family afterwards as she watches from a sort of purgatory/after-life. Her killer continues living, seemingly getting away with his horrid crimes. Her family has trouble letting go. Her father can’t let the killer go undiscovered and tirelessly tries to find him, which causes strife in the family and tears them apart.
As Alice watches, she has a hard time seeing her family falling apart and along with her family members, she questions the purpose of her murder. After her mom leaves her dad and sister, Alice is sad. But as she narrates, she realizes that while she didn’t see the purpose at first, she would someday see why. And she does see some of the good that comes from the bad that was done to her. That alone is what redeems the movie after the sadness of the story. It’s not the happiest of plots, but it’s got some substance.