The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones is a story about the afterlife. It's the story of a young girl, Susie Salmon, who is brutally raped and murdered by her neighbour and then watches her family deal with her death from heaven, and also comes to terms with her death herself. It's an unusual story because the person telling it is dead- something i've not come accross before. It makes it more sad because you get to hear how she is not only missed but misses people herself. It's usually the family you feel sorry for, but she has been taken away from them too.

  Although the murderer is known to the reader from the beginning, the book is almost like a murder mystery/crime novel as it follows the investigation into finding the killer and how her father tries to uncover the truth. Rather than wanting to find out who the murderer is you're desperate for him to be caught before he gets away.

 Another interesting thing about the book is the description of heaven. Its not a religious heaven- there's no god and Susie's heaven is different to everyone else's heaven. There are other people there so it's not an individual heaven but certain things change as to how Susie wants them to. She can also move up into a larger heaven, like a promotion, as she grows.

A film version of the novel is coming out soon and I'm really looking forward to seeing it to compare how I saw the book to how the film makers percieved it. From the trailer I think the heaven is quite similar to what I envisioned but teh characters look quite different. It's not a book I thought of as havig potential for a movie but I will be interested to see how well it works.

Atonement

Joined by Love. Seperated by Fear. Redeemed by Hope.

Last night I watched Atonement, a 2007 adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. It was a really touching and beautiful film and really made me sad to think about being in the same situation as the main characters in the film. The film is about a young couple, Cecilia and Robbie, who shortly after finding love together are seperated by the silly lies of a young and immature child- the younger sister of Cecilia, Briony Tallis. Briony is a budding writer with an active imagination and a crush on her sister's lover Robbie. She claims to have seen him do something she isn't sure she saw to get him taken away so that not only she can't have him, but neither can her sister. Although the main characters are portrayed as Robbie and Cecilia, the film is very much about the effects that Briony's foolish lies have on their lives until the day they die. I think the young actress Saoirse Ronan, who plays Briony is a briliant actress and the real star of the film. 

The film is brilliantly directed and has an award winning score which I noticed involved the sound of a typewriter throughout the film. This was very relevant at the beginning when we see both Briony and Robbie use typwriters, but is used throughout the film, often I think, to emphasise the passing of time- like the ticking of a clock. It's also used to build tension with the clicks speeding up and down as tension builds and fades.

I also noticed the colour of costumes in the fim seemed to be quite significant. Briony, who is porrtrayed as a rather nasty child, is always dressed in white. I think this gives her a look of innocence which seems to be a misjudgement of her character by her parents and peers. Towards the end of the film though, you begin to realise that she was just as innocent as any child, but was naive to what long term effects her lies can have on people. In the end her lies have a big affect on her life too.

I think one of the most striking and memorable images from the film is that of Kiera Knightley in a vivid green dress. It made me think about the colour and what mood it creates. Green is supposed to be calm and soothing and represent good luck. But it also represents jealousy, which Briony feels towards Cecilia. This could be the reason the stylist chose this colour, but I think in the context the colour became very sexy and had the same striking effect that a red dress would usually be used for in a film. I found it quite interesting how the colour of the dress seemed to make the scene so much more impactful and memorable.

(500) Days of Summer

I went to see (500) days of Summer last week. I was kind of reluctant to go and see it as there was another film I wanted to see on at he cinema and this just looked like another romantic comedy, of which I've watched a lot of recently and none of them have been that great- mostly because they tend to have a little comedy but very little romance. This one was different though. For one thing the characters really had chemistry between them which often lacks in romantci comedies. At first I wasn't keen on the female character, Summer, but then you are shown what the male character, Tom, sees in her and you really want them to get together. I really liked how the film wasn't in chronological order but skipped from different days of the 500 'days of Summer' and this really showed the contrast in how Summer made Tom feel so happy at some points and so low at others. The scenes would skip from when Tom had just broken up with Summer and then back to when he was blissfully happy and vice versa. I also liked the use of animation in the film. There's a scene that combines live action with animation for a scene in Tom's imagination where he's feeling so happy he can see a little blue bird flying around him. There's other interesting scenes using photo slide shows and the live action turning into a sketchy animation too. It all helps to tell the story really well and keep your interest. I thought it was the best, most unique and unpredictable romantic comedy I've seen in a long time and whenever I hear songs from it they make me smile (it had a good soundtrack too). Highly recommended, to girls especially.