HA! Wildly improbable x-post with Fiona!

It's Heavenly Creatures - and the incredibly overt evocation of the fantasy world - that makes me dread a Jackson Lovely Bones movie. It will only work if they pull back on the fantasy and make it suggestive rather than explicit. Which is not to say I don't like HC, of course.

and the incredibly overt evocation of the fantasy world

I didn't think that was HC's strength at all, though. These were, what, a couple of very brief sequences? Otherwise I thought he was extremely good at capturing the unspoken dynamic between the girls.

But, as I say not having read LB, it's not really possible for me to comment further....

It's the mood. TLB is very limpid and Couplandesque (actionably Couplandesque, almost). My memory of HC is much more frantic, although it has beena while.

The nearest I can think of, actually, to a film of how TLB should feel is the film of The Virgin Suicides or Ang Lee's Ice Storm. That mid-90s 70's suburban ennui subgenre.

TLB is very limpid and Couplandesque

But...I love Coupland. I haven't read it and want to, having heard so many good things about it until now.

That mid-90s 70's suburban ennui subgenre.

I thought it was more ennui than anything else. And I don't quite mean that as a slam on the book. Just that Ice Storm had a tremendous tension that it lacked -- it felt, even during the "crime-solving" and re-enacting portions much slower.

I haven't see The Virgin Suicides, so I can't compare.

And there is room for fantasy, even if of the mundane sort.

And there is room for fantasy, even if of the mundane sort

Oh, yeah, just make sure the fantastic elements take place "In a setting of clear reality".

It is a very static book, you're right.

A bit more detail in the IMDB summary:

Director Peter Jackson and his screenwriter wife Fran Walsh will follow up this year's King Kong re-make with a screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-selling novel The Lovely Bones. American movie trade publication Daily Variety reports the Oscar-winners used their own money to buy the feature film rights to the grim tale from British production company Filmfour. The 2002 book is narrated from heaven by a 14-year-old girl who has been raped and murdered, as she follows the lives of those left behind to deal with the tragedy. Jackson and Walsh will begin adapting the screenplay with their partner Philippa Boyens next January, and will promote the project to studios when it is finished. Jackson says, "It's the best kind of fantasy in that it has a lot to say about the real world. You have an experience when you read the book that is unlike any other. I don't want the tone or the mood to be different or lost in the film."

It's nice knowing the source material, but having no devotion to it, because then I can kick back and crituque unemotionally. Which is my favourite sort of carping.

I find the juxtaposition of these two IMDb news stories amusing:

Foxx Inspired by 'New Jack City'
Wesley Snipes' performance in New Jack City triggered Jaime Foxx's quest for big screen stardom - because it made him realize black actors can succeed in white-dominated Hollywood. The film star, who has received rave reviews for his portrayal of late R&B great Ray Charles in Ray, insists 1991 movie New Jack City inspired his Hollywood career by proving black actors are not limited to stereotypical roles. The 37-year-old says, "My favorite film is New Jack City with Wesley Snipes. This was basically a black version of The Godfather and even though it was a hit it was more like an underground film. A lot of people don't know that Wesley Snipes played opposite Michael Jackson in the Bad video. He's the one who says, 'You ain't bad, you ain't nothing!' He went from that to this movie New Jack City and it was the first time you saw a black kid play a role like Al Pacino in Scarface or The Godfather."

Snipes "Threatened To Kill" Director
Actor Wesley Snipes threatened to kill Blade: Trinity director David Goyer because he felt his all action character had been sidelined to make room for two new ones. The 42-year-old's co-stars, Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel, recently complained he had alienated himself from everyone working on the third installment of the vampire-fest, by remaining in character for the entire duration of the shoot. And movie insiders tell British magazine OK! that Snipes was so furious about his marginalized role, he made physical threats against Goyer. An insider confides, "Wesley made death threats against David. David was scared for his life." But a spokesperson for Goyer counters, "Wesley is a method actor. There's always a lot of tension on set."