"The Lovely Bones"

I watched "The Lovely Bones" and I would have to say out of five stars I would give this one four stars for such a great story and creativity. It is about a 14 year old girl Suzie Salmon who gets murdered by her psychotic neighbor. Suzie finds herself dead after the fact and somehow lets her father know that she was still there somewhat. Her father who plays Mark Wahlberg in the movie is determined to find Suzie's murdered. From the beginning her sister mysteriously feels uneasy even in front of the neighbor's house. After her sister's murder she suspects the neighbor and like her Dad is looking for answers. Just as her Dad is piecing things together talking to the neighbor a dead rose took on life again and he realized that it was the neighbor and tries breaking the door down. The detective comes he says they need evidence. So Suzie's sister goes into the neighbor’s house when she knows he just left and finds a book with the plot to kill her sister just as the neighbor gets home. Suzie's sister barely makes it out alive and give the evidence to her Grandma just after she realized her Mom had come back home. The neighbor gets away but fate has it in for him and as he is trying to pick up another young girl he falls over a cliff to his dead.

"Dear John"

I can't begin to tell you guys how much this story touched me. I cried in the movie as well as reading the book. I am not sure which I liked more, the book or the movie.

In the movie Savannah and John fell in love and he went to war. After what happened September 11th all the men in his squad felt obligated to reenlist so he reenlisted not wanting to let his men down. Although Savannah seemed supportive her letters came less and less. Eventually he got a letter from her stating that she had fallen in love and was getting married. When John took leave when his Dad died he went and saw Savannah. She had married her best friend Tim when she found out he had cancer. She felt obligated especially with his son who was autistic. Tim was dying of melanoma cancer. Savannah was trying to raise money so that Tim could get treatment somewhere else but the insurance wouldn't pay for it cause it was trial drugs and treatment. After leaving, John sold his Dad's coin collection and put the money in the account which was for Tim's cancer. Tim ended up going to the treatment but died a short while later. That is where it ended.

In the book, there were so many more details. When John was seeing Savannah she bought him a book for autism and suggested his Dad might be autistic. Even though he was really upset about this he realized she might be right and read the book. From that time on he understood why he did the way he did things the way he did them. He always longed for his Dad to talk to him more and not just about coins but because of being autistic his Dad had grown up with his Dad looking for collector coins. That is what he grew up knowing so that is all he was capable of that. After leaving and going back overseas he continued to write with Savannah. On his leaves they were spent with mostly Savannah and some with his Dad. Sometime later after some fighting between them and time Savannah sent John a letter saying that she had fallen in love and she was sorry. After this time, he kept reenlisting but everytime he got leave he would go spend all his time with his Dad. After he understood his Dad having autism he realized coins is what his Dad knew so they went out and looked for more coins and talked about them non-stop. Sometime later his Dad had a heart attack and he took leave to see him. Upon him getting somewhat better he had his Dad's neighbor who was a nurse agree to look in on him. Time past and his Dad got worse. He came back on his next leave to find his Dad in grave condition and put him in a 'home' where he could get the care he needed. Even though his Dad seemed mortified it was all John could do to be responsible. Shortly after that his Dad passed away and for the first time ever John cried over his Dad. After the funeral he took his Dad's car and drove to see Savannah just to have someone to talk to. She was the only best friend he had ever known. Upon seeing her, it was like nothing ever changed and occasionally he would glance at her wedding ring to realize his feelings might not have changed but they did and she was married infact. Even though she had never drank before she said she looked forward to a glass of good wine a night. To John she seemed very distraught and unsettled. She asked John to go with her to meet her husband and it was Tim, her best friend that she had married. Shocked, when they got to the hospital he still went in and talked to Tim. Even though Savannah had been flirting with John he respected that she was married and refused to go there with her. Before John left he went and saw Tim and Tim said how if he ever died that he would want Savannah to be happy and marry again. That Savannah loved him but never loved him like Savannah loved John and he wished that if he would pass that John would marry Savannah. Like the movie, he sold his Dad's coin collection and put it in the account for Tim's cancer money. Tim was able to get the trial drugs and treatment and lived from it. Years after the fact John went back but back enough so noone would see him or know of his presence there. The last time he saw her in the book she snuck outside to look at the moon. Something she had made John promise he would do everytime the moon was full so he would think of her and remember all that they shared.

In many ways, the movie seemed happier except the fact that in the book he actually got to know his Dad and that Tim didn't die but in the book it gave so many more stories and details. All and all it was a good movie and a good book I thought.

In the book it stated how he knew he was in love because during the day he would smile just simply remembering memories of Savannah or just seeing her in his head. That is what I call love. That is what everyone can hope for.