Who knew? Roger Ebert: feminist?
"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?
The rest of the review is just as lethal and funny. I haven't read the book or seen the movie, but thanks to him I can check them both of my to-do list.
I read the book about six years ago after it was recommended by several different people, all of them smart, thoughtful, feminists. It was one of my favorite books I'd ever read. I was excited when I heard a movie version coming out because I could not imagine how it would translate to film, as I felt it depended so much on our own interpretation and imagination. (As most books do I guess.) I was disappointed when I heard the first reviews come out and even more so when I saw previews, and I, like you, have checked the movie off my list.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be interesting to go back and read the book now, with my evolved perspective, but in no way did I feel when I read it the first time that it celebrated the rape and murder by saying it gives you something to look forward to; rather it treated it as something that, tragically, can and does happen, and gave one persons imagination of what may come after, without pushing any religious and/or completely unbelievable bullsh*t (as it appears the movie does) down your throat.