Almost There: Saoirse Ronan in "The Lovely Bones"
Monday, December 7, 2020 at 9:00PM 
Oscar-wise, Saoirse Ronan is an interesting case study. The Irish actress was only thirteen when she got her first nomination for her supporting turn in 2007's Atonement. From the start, she was seen as a prodigy, a young performer of uncommon talent and even rarer maturity whose characterizations seemed wise beyond their years. Still, one could have easily believed Ronan would go the way of other Oscar-honored child actors, fading into obscurity or just falling off AMPAS' radar. As luck would have it, things turned out differently.
Ronan shares with Jodie Foster (nominated at 14), Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood (both nominated at 17) the honor of being the only underage Oscar nominees to be nominated again in adulthood. This year, Saoirse is back in the conversation thanks to Francis Lee's introspective Ammonite, though the picture's somewhat cold reception and austere nature might repel the Academy. In the past, Ronan's been lucky, conquering nods nearly every time she was in contention – Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird, Little Women. Still, no lucky streak is perfectly continuous and without bumps. Just look at 2009's The Lovely Bones…
Adapted from a novel written by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones tells the story of Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old American girl who's raped and murdered by a neighbor on December 6th, 1973. Combining a crime thriller with whimsical meditations on the afterlife, Peter Jackson's movie cuts back and forth between Susie's existence in limbo and her family's reckoning with loss as the years go by. The book is one of those literary creations whose specificities defy cinematic translation, though one can imagine a bold cineaste making a grand project with the material.
We can conjecture how Lynne Ramsay, a name attached to the movie in its early days, may have been able to accomplish such a miracle. Jackson, however, isn't as fortunate. His vision of the tale is a mismatch of conflicting tones, both frenetic and tiresome, too anonymous in its style while simultaneously overstuffed with tacky CGI excess. The emotional skeleton of Susie and the Salmons' woes is still somewhat visible beneath the digital clutter, but several disjointed elements pull the flick down towards the depths of mediocrity.
One of those unfortunate facets is Stanley Tucci's take on the murderous antagonist. It's a performance of cartoonish one-dimensionality, though, to be fair, most of the cast is also going big (to their detriment). This is true about Susan Sarandon's drag-tastic take on an alcoholic grandmother and Mark Wahlberg's fussy gradations of grief souring into an obsession, among many others. Only one performer leaves the picture unscathed by its miseries and that's Saoirse Ronan as the protagonist.
In many ways, Ronan is tasked with the impossible duty of anchoring Jackson's flights of fancy into digital and aesthetic purgatory. She's the one who grounds The Lovely Bones on the big screen and forcefully pulls a couple of unearned tears from the spectator. All that and she must, at all times, fight the worst impulses of her writer and director. This is noticeable right from the start when Ronan must establish Susie's living self through an impressionistic collage of hurried scenes.
With luminous smiles and hints of conspiratorial fun with her dad, Susie is quickly fleshed out to us. The writing is more than a bit generic, coming off as an adult's idea of a sunny teenager rather than the real deal. Ronan, however, shades the youthful radiance with hints of ugly petulance, the overexcitement of a schoolgirl's crush, the boredom that comes with too much energy and too little to spend it on. It's no great feat of characterization, but it gets the job done, setting emotional stakes that will come into play once Susie leaves a void in her place after brutal violence takes her life. The scene preluding that murder is her best acting in the whole picture, an innocent lamb realizing its slaughter is near.
From then on, Ronan is completely untethered from the mundane reality of the main storyline, her role's demands evolving. Before, she had to breathe authenticity into wisps of barely sketched out narrative. Now, she must play against a scenery of increasingly abstract imagery, clumsily moving through a dream of evanescing materiality. Early on, she gets some of her better moments, reacting to the out-of-body experience of being murdered, running in mindless panic, screaming, emptying herself of feeling in an explosion of anguish. She plays it as if she were in a horror movie, a final girl who didn't live to the end.
Confusion gives in to denial, anger, hedonistic enjoyment of the afterlife's otherworldly possibilities, a bittersweet joy that unexpectedly turns into anger, fury decomposing into sorrow, and, at last, transmogrifying into acceptance. All this reveals itself in Ronan's shifting expression though her transformations are interspersed within a torrent of bright-colored fantasy. They are lost amidst a cinematic idiom that has no interest in helping her to telegraph her character arc. Instead, the actress slogs her way through unrelenting dreamscapes, always walking inertly, her arms dropped at her sides unless she's sprinting or dancing.
I wish I could like Ronan's work more, but she's continuously sabotaged by her own picture. Often, one sees glimpses of a fascinating star turn like when she observes a romance blossoming and chooses to project elation over sisterly jealousy, or when the actress lets her blue eyes shift from terror to unreadable blankness upon seeing the box containing her defiled remains. At least, she gets one last scene to show her talents and, thankfully, the camera calms down enough to witness Susie's first and only kiss. There, in that teary smile, nervous hands, and weary resignation, we see a whole new universe of bruising humanity, an oasis in this cinematic desert.
The Lovely Bones was highly anticipated and appeared in many people's predictions before anyone had seen it. Once critics took a look, its Oscar hopes dwindled, crushed under the weight of rightfully hostile reviews. Still, Ronan and Tucci were often singled out as the project's saving graces and such sentiment was reflected in terms of awards. He'd go on to snag his only Academy Award nomination to date, while she won considerable precursor buzz. She received Best Actress nods from BAFTA and the BFCA, and won a bunch of Young Actor prizes along the way.
In the end, that wasn't enough for her to crack into AMPAS' lineup. Instead, the Academy chose Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Helen Mirren in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan in An Education, Gabourey Sidibe in Precious, and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia. As we all know, Bullock won for her blockbuster Best Picture nominee. Honestly, I can't say Ronan deserved to score herself a nomination for The Lovely Bones but, if she had, Mirren would have probably been the one left out. Would you have preferred that outcome?
The Lovely Bones is streaming on DirecTV and Cinemax. You can also rent it through most services.
Reader Comments (27)
I remember a lot of bad acting in this...and then Saoirse, luminous. I think she should have replaced Bullock in the Best Actress lineup (and the award should have gone to Mulligan or Sidibe).
Ronan manages to get out of this film unscathed I think, but the film is an absolute mess. What I wouldn't have given to see Ramsey's take on this material.
Honestly, I'm so glad Ronan's four nominations are for the exact performances I would choose. All four would be worthy wins, and three of the four had my vote (Larson edging out Brooklyn being the exception). As a huge fan, I hope she doesn't get in for Ammonite, even though she's perfectly fine in it. Excellence only!
What Andrew said. That stated, this was where I was convinced that he would have a truly terrific career.
The Lovely Bones should be on every Almost Not There list. Poor Stanley got nominated for the wrong role.
Stanley was one of those noms that the Academy overlooked before so they decided it was time and then nominated him on his worst performance.
This movie was so bad...
Golden: Worst Performance? I don't really know. Would you say it's worse than Caesar Flickerman? His Transformers performances? Curious.
I haven't seen this since 2009 but Boozy Grandma Susan Sarandon shouting "You have a tomb in the middle of your house!" is a line that absolutely plays on a loop in my head.
It's not a terrible movie, but it isn't good either, Ronan and Tucci are quite good, the score is nice too.
My personal lineup for best actress:
1.Catalina Saavedra (La nana)
2.Carey Mulligan (An education)
3.Charlotte Gainsburg (Antichrist)
4.Penélope Cruz (Los abrazos rotos)
5.Katie Jarvis (Fish tank)
Sandra Bullock was a bad choice, she's my number 12
What a piece of shit that movie is. I love Saiorse Ronan and she was the only thing in the film worth watching but everything else. FUCK NO!!!! What could've been if Lynne Ramsay had things her way. At least she did We Need to Talk About Kevin yet I feel like more people need to see her previous film that is Morvern Callar. Now that's a film.
The movie was godawful, but Saoirse really was something in it. I'm not sure I would've nominated her, but she was miles better than Sandra Bullock, which is one of the worst best actress wins ever.
She was probably running sixth or seventh, give or take Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria (another performance I wasn't crazy about).
Stanley Tucci - who I love - gives the worst Oscar nominated performance in history. Sean Penn in I am Sam? Give me others!
My picks for Best Actress for 2009:
1. Charlotte Gainsbourg-Antichrist
2. Katie Jarvis-Fish Tank
3. Gabourey Sidibe-Precious
4. Abbie Cornish-Bright Star
5. Kim Hye-ja-Mother
6. Penelope Cruz-Broken Embraces
7. Carey Mulligan-An Education
8. Emily Blunt-Young Victoria
9. Paulina Gaitan-Sin Nombre
10. Anne Dorval-I Killed My Mother
Tucci was nominated for the wrong movie that year. He should have took that spot with Julie and Julia
The only thing I remember about this movie was Stanley Tucci mouthing "terrible" after his Oscar clip. His Julie & Julia performance was RIGHT THERE!
Working stiff -- There is a lot of bad acting in this, including from actors I usually like.
Andrew -- The movie is a mess. I already disliked it in 2009, but I think I hate it even more now.
eurocheese -- I really liked her performance in AMMONITE, more so than some of her nominated performances, but she's not a supporting actress.
Arkaan -- At the time, I was afraid this would sink her career. Glad those fears were proven wrong.
Sam -- He's awful. It's such a pity that his only acting nom is from one of his lousiest turns.
Golden -- Agreed.
Jon From -- Agreed. Also, is your name inspired by the João Nicolau film?
Volvagia -- I think it's worse than his HUNGER GAMES performance. Have never seen his Transformers flick.
Alex -- That line reading has been burned into my mind ever since I saw the trailer, way back in 2009.
Cafg -- I really like your lineup. Thanks for sharing.
thevoid99 -- MORVERN CALLAR is a perfect film, as far as I'm concerned. Also, thanks for sharing your Best Actress choices of 2009.
Aaron -- I think she was probably behind Blunt. Now there's an actress I'll have to write about one of these days for the Almost There series.
Michael R -- I despise the performance, but there's much worse out there. Richard Dix in CIMARRON, for instance.
PP -- I would have nominated him for JULIE & JULIA.
Santy C. -- He was right.
My Best Actress lineup, according to Oscar eligibility would have been:
Abbie Cornish, BRIGHT STAR
Kim Ok-bin, THIRST
Tilda Swinton, JULIA *winner*
Gabourey Sidibe, PRECIOUS
Maria Onetto, THE HEADLESS WOMAN
Honorable Mentions: Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION + Catalina Saavedra, THE MAID
Ineligible: Isabelle Huppert, WHITE MATERIAL + Birgit Minichmayr, EVERYBODY ELSE + Kim Hye-Ja, MOTHER + Anne Dorval, I KILLED MY MOTHER + Robin McLeavy, THE LOVED ONES
Thank you all for the feedback. This is the first less than positive Almost There write-up so I was nervous about the reception. Glad you seemed to enjoy it, despite the negativity of some of my observations.
It's a bad movie with talented performers stranded by their directors lurid cgi excesses same thing that ruined his take on King Kong,Obviosuly after winning the Oscar nobody would say "No that's Too Much" but Ronans is good.
Tucci was nominated for the wrong performance.Was this a sorry for the DWP snub.
I think Ronan is very good at Ammonite, Claudio. But the great performance of the film is really Kate Winslet.
I don’t think The Lovely Bones is a bad movie. OK, the CGI overload is annoying, but the young cast managed to save the movie as a whole and Saoirse made me cry every time I watched it. Oscarwise, neither her or Tucci deserved a nom, but if Saoirse was, instead of Mirren or Bullock, I would not complain (obviously I am speaking of true possibilities for a replacement because there was stronger “longshot performers” that year like Charlotte Gainsbourgh, Abbie Cornish and Penélope).
Thank you, Antonio, for the “true possibilities” mention. I have developed a deeply felt pet peeve for the “my nominees would have been” list that is filled with high-brow, art house, usually foreign language performances that never had a shot in hell of being nominated for an Oscar. It reeks of pretension and comes off, to me, as an attempt to prove how smart someone is.
I’m not innocent of this - I specifically remember saying that the father from Monsoon Wedding should be nominated - but then I realized how silly it was. Discussions about Oscar winners and nominees is fun and we should do it often (that’s why I’m here!). Deep, thoughtful, pontifications on CINEMA are fruitful and can also provide joy.... but just stop your pontificating when I’m just trying to have a little fun.
markgordonuk -- I would have nominated him for JULIE & JULIA and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.. That said, I don't think he was ever in serious contention for the 2006 movie.
yokobama -- I agree that as good as Ronan is, Winslet is the stand-out in AMMONITE. Her last scene with Fiona Shaw is some of the best acting she's ever done.
Antônio -- I'm glad you find so much to appreciate in the film. I do confess, though, that it's a moving story and Ronan's last scene did make me tear up.
Jake -- I'm sorry but what's the point of doing these "my nominees" lists if not to express what one truly thinks were the best achievements of the year? To restrict ourselves to Oscar possibility seems to confuse dream ballots with predictions. Also, I'm not trying to prove how smart I am or any such nonsense by mentioning non-English performances. If this is a pet peeve of yours, it's a pet peeve of mine for people to presume I'm praising films in bad faith just to be pretentious. I actually love THIRST, JULIA, WHITE MATERIAL, and other pictures I mentioned above. Great acting isn't exclusive to Oscar-y projects and it's fun to me to celebrate such greatness. I don't think people mentioning "foreign" language performances were the ones pontificating in this comment section.
Apologies if my response comes off as too heated but, as I said, this is a pet peeve of mine. I've been accused many times of trying to appear smart and it's genuinely exhausting to have people proclaim my love for certain films is dishonest in some way. A person can love art house films without an ulterior motive of wanting to appear smart.
Claudio - Well-said and well-argued. That’s why you’re my favorite.
Just to clarify one thing - I do not believe that you are praising a film in bad taste. I fully believe that everyone listing these performances loves them. I also believe that that love motivates them to praise them whenever there is an opportunity, and I completely understand that.
My peeve rears it’s head when the conversation begins as an Oscar discussion, namely about how close an actor or actress was to being nominated, and turns into a chance for people to show their cineaste bona fides. Again, I’m not immune - I’m in the middle of a full Ingmar Bergman deep dive, right now, and want to discuss my thoughts on this at any and every opportunity. My point is, by going directly from Oscar nominees to our individual best performance ranking, we’re changing the conversation.
If the topic is best performances in a year - I’d love it and would go crazy with cineaste love with everyone else. But if it’s an Oscar discussion - let’s talk about Emily Blunt a little more; or Abbie Cornish in Bright Star; and how close might Swinton (who was in the race) or Laurent may have been? To me, it’s just two different conversations. I know I may be finicky...
Either way, keep up the good work Claudio!
Claudio : good call on Dix. I should have added "in the last 30 years or so." Wonderful article as always 😃
I had Ronan in my picks over Mirren that year after the BAFTA nods. I still can’t believe Mirren’s only post win nod has been for The Last Station. And there needs to be a weeklong Almost There series for Emily Blunt performances. Maybe in late February around her birthday?
Sigh. The book is beautiful.
https://uk.edubirdie.com/article-review