Peter Jackson seems kind of "back from the geeks" with this outing. It seems definitely more serious than his previous work, carrying a lot of substance but still managing to show his incredible inventivity.
As most movies dealing with this kind of themes (the murder of a young girl), it is wrapped in a sort of crime mystery (will the culprit get caught?). However, as the good movies dealing with this kind of themes, the real focus is on loss & grief. Because a movie about death is also about life and because, in the end, everything else than a life ending is inconsequential. Death is a natural thing anyway and however it happens, life has to go on for the rest of the world. Chaos prevails.
Incredible turns from all actors involved, combined by fantastic visuals (the afterlife provides quite stunning vistas) achieve a brilliant result, that hits right at the heart.
Sure there are a lot of things in here and at some pointI wasn't sure where all of this was going. Yet it's also refreshing to see a film so bold & layered, enjoyable on so many levels, whether it's for the teen romance, the portrait of a killer, the suspence or the eerie atmosphere. It's also very cleverly constructed (and not overdone) for a story that's finally very simple.
Peter Jackson shows his versatility here and uses all his tricks to compell the viewer (I especially liked his use of extreme close ups and slow motion).
A brilliant, elegant, sad, harsh yet sweet & beautiful movie.
Update: I wish it got a BAFTA, yet there was a lot of competition and it wasn't really robbed...
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