Books vs. Movies : Part Trois

This week's Books vs. Movies showdown is between Lovely Bones, the book written by Alice Sebold and the movie adapted for the screen directed by Peter Jackson.

First on to the book, written in 2002 by an unknown, it became a hit and was an instant success staying on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. The movie rights were purchased by Peter Jackson personally, so I thought that it would be well done but I was incorrect.

The girl that they got to play Susie Salmon was too beautiful. In the book, she is described as a plain girl and there is nothing plain about Saoirse Ronan at all. There were a couple things that were a bit over the top. Like the heaven sequence, and the fact that there was no transition; she just sort of walks away, and finds out that she's dead. That's not how the book has it. Other than that, the movie was alright. I will never get used to Mark Walberg playing a father, he seemed too young to be playing the father of teenagers. Everyone else seemed adequately casted, except the ones aforementioned. Don’t get me wrong, Saoirse is an amazing actress for her age, which is saying something because most of the teen actresses, such as Emma Roberts are quite awful. 

I didn’t really expect much, because of the fact that so far, the movie adaptations that I have seen that don’t have the author directly involved, with the exception of Chuck Palahniuk books’ movie adaptations, suck. They don’t stay true to the core of the book, because they are entirely unaware about that core. The interesting thing about the adaptation is that those who read the book were mostly on the fence about whether they liked it or not, and those who didn't read the book mostly loved it. But I think the movie will be forgotten, which is sad because Saoirse is such a phenom. 

The book wins this round, but check the movie out if you want. But don't say that I didn't warn you.