Director Peter Jackson has transformed Alice Sebold’s novel, Lovely Bones, into an emotionally intense film about the life and afterlife of Susie Salmon.

Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) was murdered at the lively young age of 14. She was crossing the cornfield to her Pennsylvania home after school when her awkwardly friendly, yet creepy neighbor Mr. Harvey (Stanley Tucci) lured her into an underground self-made playhouse-like shack.

Susie narrates most of the film as we see her family struggle over their tragic loss. While her family is in turmoil Susie is stuck in the “in between” which is a fantasy like place you go through before heaven. Susie’s “in between” is not all butterflies and rainbows; it is a place where she is having an inner battle with letting go versus her strong want for revenge on her murderer. She can often see and hear her family, friends and murderer.

Susie’s parents, Jack (Mark Wahlberg) and Abigail (Rachel Weisz), find it hard to reconnect with one another because they are both healing in different ways after losing Susie. Jack’s obsession of solving Susie’s murder pushes Abigail away and in return brings Abigail’s mother, crazy Grandma Lynn (Susan Sarandon), to help care for the two other children.

The film meshes Susie’s vengeance for her murderer with her father Jack’s intent to solve the mystery, her sister’s suspicions of the creepily chilling neighbor and murderer Mr. Harvey’s skewed behaviors.

Lovely Bones, is one of the most emotionally driven films I have seen in a long time. Some of the scenes were so intense that you could tell everyone in the theater’s hearts were racing with anticipation. The suspense was thrilling and is definitely key to the success of the film.

Additionally, the filming of Lovely Bones was creatively captivating. It illustrated the drastic ranges in emotion perfectly. One scene would be a horrible struggle while the next would be Susie’s fairytale-like world. The filming was very appealing and kept the audience entertained and curious. Additionally, the realistic features of the fantasy world were outstanding. Super sized glass bottles crashing into the shore along with a pug driven sleigh to larger than life ice sculptures. The fantasy seemed so real.

Saoirse Ronan played a beautifully curious Susie Salmon. She exemplified energy and hope that there is a fairytale life after death. I truly believe this will be her breakout role. Likewise, Susan Sarandon played an excellent kooky grandmother! Her constant drinking and smoking while taking care of the household chores was hilariously entertaining.

I really enjoyed this film. It was very heartbreaking, yet intriguing. I think everyone wanted vengeance on the awful murderer. I have not read the novel but I will definitely add it to my list. I feel like most films never live up to the expectations of one who has read the book so I’m interested to see if the book will live up to my expectations after seeing the movie first.

I definitely think this film is geared more towards women and I would strongly recommend adhering to the pg-13 rating; at times it was quite frightening and I’m sure would be scarier for someone younger.

Lovely Bones will be in theaters on Friday, January 15!