Now, more emotionally mature and steady (for today, anyway, from a mom point of view), I was able to sit and watch the film version of this popular book. Like watching a beautiful dream, The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson, is a stunningly artistic visual creation that glides you through the story of 12-year old Susie Q Salmon’s tragic murder and her journey through “the in between” while her family deals with the reality of tragedy aftermath.

A disarming cast is carried throughout the movie by the youthful, captivating voice of Saoirse Ronan, who narrates and guides us through her brief life as Susie Q. Mark Wahlberg delivers as the determined and tortured father. Rachel Weisz, whose portrayal of a mother losing a daughter and then a husband to his obsession over the case, is surpassed only by the tragically glorious Susan Sarandon who plays an alcoholic, fur-wearing, chain smoking, tormented grandmother who swoops in to save the day.  And Stanley Tucci is brilliant as, well, he is brilliant (and barely recognizable!)

At a certain moment in the movie, I literally jumped out of my seat and onto my feet and yelled at the screen. Seriously, I got that involved – the agitation took over!). I could relate to each and every character and what they were going through. I was with Walberg every step of the way in his obsession. I felt the pain and understood the choices of Weisz, and I saw a part of me turning into Sarandon’s character if I wasn’t careful. Susie Q’s younger sister, played spot on by Rose McIver, stole the show in the end. Her quiet portrayal and struggle to stay in the background of the other three main characters’ needs spoke volumes about what survivors of this type of tragedy must go through. Each character’s pain was their own. And no one particularly shared their pain with another. They each had to deal with it on their own, in their own way, on their own terms.

And as much as this movie is about Susie watching her family try to solve her murder, wanting to see the bad guy get his due, and moving on in life while honoring Susie’s memory, it is also as much about the ties and connections that are strengthened between people when there is a shared past – good or bad. And the ultimate dependence upon other human beings to be known, to be seen, to be heard, and to be felt.

Leave the kids at home and enjoy this one on your own.