Movie:
The Lovely Bones
Scene Description: Susie Salmon's father (Mark Wahlberg) notices a dead rosebush in the yard of
[the man who killed his daughter
. Said man is disturbed by the shadow of a girl riding a bike on a concrete wall, so he drops a bundle of sticks, causing the father to go all wide-eyed and needlessly suspicious and zombie-like and....
Commentary: ....let's just stop there, shall we, because the description of the scene itself naturally leads into the fact that this is hands down the single worst scene Jackson has ever directed and will ever direct (fingers crossed) in his entire career, and abysmally conceived and executed MOMENT OF DRAMA (!), where the reveal of key information that we as the audience have known right from the beginning (I didn't really need to spoiler tag info above) to one of the main characters is done via a friggin rosebush, EIGHT flashbacks to a overlit pasty TIME OF INNOCENCE AND HAPPINESS (!!!), the main object of scrutiny looking and acting like a completely psychotic murderer right from the first frame of the movie right up to this point where the two men bond over the building of a rudimentary backyard shelter out of sticks (WTF), several close ups and absolutely no concrete evidence of any kind.
Apparently, it's supposed to make sense because Susie in her afterlife has found a safe with a rose in it, and thus her father starts to become aware of the SIGNIFICANCE (!) of the ROSES (!). The best part is when they are building the blind, and the simple fact that the two men once also stood opposite a ROSE BUSH (!) back when the daughter was alive generates another flashback and then in the present day scene, the sun clouds over immediately, to save Wahlberg from having to act at all. Also, it'll surprise no-one to know that the dialogue in the flashbacks are stereotypically echoey and FROM THE PAST (!) to underline the fact that, yes, this is a flashback and a TIME OF INNOCENCE AND HAPPINESS (!!!). Then present day Wahlberg looks back over his shoulder at the road, causing present day Tucci to look like he's just been caught screwing a sheep or something, even though the other person has done nothing but LOOK BACK OVER HIS SHOULDER AT THE ROAD....then suddenly he looks psychotic again as he ties up some sticks on the shelter and we are treated to a slow motion close up of the VIOLENT KNOT TYING, and then a couple of closeups, one where Wahlberg appears to be trying to rip a hole in time and space with his STARE (!), before Tucci scampers back into the house and Wahlberg follows him, shouting accusations and banging on the door creating cracks just like in a zombie movie, or when Jaws was hitting the side of the boat.
I recommend everyone here to watch
The Lovely Bones, to see how a talented film-maker can completely lose sight of what makes genuinely gripping drama. And there are a couple of other awesome examples of scenes where logic and rhythm are sacrificed for DRAMA, noteably when Tucci and a random swarthy guy spend about ten minutes rolling a heavy safe from the back of his car to a hole in the ground when he could have BACKED HIS CAR TO THE EDGE and literally did it in 20 seconds (!!!!!!!!). Jackson, wanting to stretch out the tension of the scene, forgets to provide any earthly reason why two men with no mental incapacity of any kind, would park a car so far from the destination and then proceed to struggle to get something REALLY HEAVY to that destination. He is so wrapped up in the feelings he is trying to generate that he forgets to make the story somewhat palusible and the whole thing deflates into a parody of TENSION (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!)
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