(8/10)
Upon second viewing, my rating nearly stays. I've noticed a couple flaws.
PLOT:Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is a happy-go-lucky young girl that likes to take lots of photos and has a crush on this British boy at her school. One day as she's walking home from school, she's stopped crossing the cornfield by her neighbor, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci) who shows her an underground clubhouse full of toys and games galore. Susie starts to enjoy this, until Mr. Harvey starts to get forcible. When things start to get a little too creepy for her, Susie tries to run, but to her surprise she doesn't make it. Now she's trapped in between Earth and Heaven, trying to decide whether to stay connected to her Earth life through spirit, or ascend into Heaven with all the others. It's a very unique and creative plot (based on the book) executed very well, but with a major flaw that I'll get to later.
ACTING:The acting in here is pretty good. I loved Ronan's performance as Susie. For a young actress, I could feel her emotions and I appreciate that. Tucci did a very good job as the creepy killer, George, but his performance grew annoying in some parts. The other shiners in this film were Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon and Rose McIver as Lindsey Salmon. I didn't think Rachel Weisz did her job as the mom well enough, and Susan Sarandon ruined her performance by acting as the comic relief.
SCORE:The score was brilliant. It was composed of some classic rock tracks, a couple beautiful, spiritual songs, and some nice mood-fitting score. My favorite song from this film would have to be This Mortal Coil's "Song to the Siren" which is played in the scene with all the kids joining Susie.
EFFECTS:Peter Jackson always does a great job with his visuals, and this film falls nothing short of that. The colorful backgrounds and visionistic depictions of "the in-between" were made wonderfully and beautifully.
OTHER CONTENT:The film was mainly very touching, artistic, beautiful, surreal, and creative, but it had a few deterring flaws which I noticed upon second viewing. The shift between artsy, emotional drama and family comedy didn't work well. Some of the emotion and creativity about the film got lost in the mix, which is also why I didn't like Susan Sarandon's comic performance in here. Another flaw I found was that there was a significant amount of melodrama. There are times where tears came to my eyes, and there were also times where I wanted the sad moment to just end for the good of the film. I don't know how I went along with that in the first viewing.
OVERALL,a great film with a unique plot, pretty good acting, brilliant score, colorful and visionistic effects, with many touching, beautiful, and surreal moments, but the tonal shifts were too uneven and there was a little too much melodrama.
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