Jackson's Lovely Bones opens to mixed reviews

Peter Jackson. Photo / AP

Early reviews of Peter Jackson's latest film - his adaption of Alice Sebold's metaphysical story The Lovely Bones - have proved mixed, with one of the worst pans coming from show business newspaper Variety.

The Variety reviewer, Todd McCarthy, surprisingly claimed that Jackson has used special effects too much and too often for a film which didn't need them, after it premiered in London this morning.

He called the presentation "show-offy" and said the film "rates as a significant artistic disappointment".

The review is a unfortunate in light of the fact that the film was originally supposed to be released in March 2008, but will now hit cinemas over the northern hemisphere's winter holidays - prompting speculation that film company Paramount has Oscar hopes for the drama.

By contrast, another well-known critic, Harry Knowles, said on his Ain't It Cool News (AICN) film industry website that it was "an incredibly lovely" film.

"From the visuals to the performances to the story-telling and film work...

it all goes to capture a very powerful story in a way that makes you want to hug those close to you," he said.

The Lovely Bones tells the story of a raped and murdered 14-year-old girl named Susie, who watches from her heavenly vantage point while her family on earth mourns her loss and tries to find her killer.

In The Guardian, Xan Brooks said it is "not a bad movie, exactly".

"It is handsomely made and strongly acted, while its woozy, lullaby ambience recalls Jackson's work on the brilliant Heavenly Creatures, before he set forth on his epic voyage through The Lord of the Rings.".

The Times newspaper in London said Jackson's predilection for richly textured layers of fantasy "runs riot here".

"The approach is anything but understated," it said, "Small-scale no longer appears in Peter Jackson's filmmaking lexicon."

It looked like a teen magazine photo story styled by Salvador Dali and the twinkly butterflies-and-rainbows aesthetic invited unwelcome comparisons to Vincent Ward's 1998 mawkish afterlife weepie What Dreams May Come.