They must have known the enormity of the risk in tackling something as delicate as this material, which is easy for readers to deal with, but much harder to successfully visualise in a coherent cinematic form.
Like his choice of casting in Heavenly Creatures, Jackson has chosen a star of tomorrow as his leading lady. It’s not the first time she has impressed and 15-year-old Saoirse Ronan leaves a lasting impression as the young girl murdered before experiencing her first kiss, and who is trapped in an in-between horizon beyond heaven. The film is a mix of genres: murder mystery, family drama, romance, ghost story and fantasy.
Murder changes everything, we hear, especially when Ronan’s Susie Salmon announces her own demise in an eerie narration. Not long after that, her hard drinking, fun-loving grandma (Susan Sarandon) predicts a long and happy life for her. “Wrong as usual,” notes Susie.
One simple thing like a piece of paper fluttering in the breeze across the cornfields after school starts a chain of events that affects many lives – among them, Mark Wahlberg’s devoted father Jack, obsessed by boat-in-bottle scale models – “if you start something, you finish it” – and Rachel Weisz’ loving mother Abigail, whose notion of moving on is opposite to her husband’s.
Rose McIver impresses as Susie’s younger sister Lindsey. Stanley Tucci makes viewers’ hair stand on end and succeeds in making viewers feel chilled to the core, as the solitary man in the tidy green house opposite, who masters the art of concealment and patience.
I feel this is Jackson’s best work to date, not necessarily in the area of cinema enjoyment and escapism, but more in terms of his craft. The director that takes us through this story is light years ahead of the Jackson that brought us Heavenly Creatures.
The visuals are breathtaking, the editing flawless and any hint of pandering to the audience is dispensed with, in favour of letting viewers take their own journey.
With Jackson getting better by the film, I can hardly wait to see what he brings to the screen next.
