The last time Peter Jackson adapted a novel into a film, it grossed over a billion dollars and won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. After watching “The Lovely Bones,” his latest adaptation, I severely doubt he’ll repeat his previous magic.

“The Lovely Bones” centers on a young girl named Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan). She lives with her family in a small suburb in 1973. As she is walking home from school one day, her friendly neighbor Mr. Harvey rapes and murders her. He dismembers her body and burns most of the evidence.

Before Susie can go on to Heaven, she must make an extended stop at the “in-between,” which is a world completely malleable to Susie’s emotions. As beautiful and magical as it is, there doesn’t seem to be a point. Susie enjoys herself, running around in colorful gardens and mystical forests, but there’s an imbalance between heavenly romps and plot development.

Ronan’s Susie is expressive and sweet. She grows from a shy child, barely a teenager and just starting to fall in love, to a calm young woman who has accepted her fate. There’s nothing wrong with her acting; the writing is the real problem. For most of the last half of the movie, Susie spends her time observing her family from one boring location. It’s never really made clear why she is choosing to stand around and wait for her family to solve the mystery instead of moving on. I suppose Ronan did her best with the uncharacteristically shoddy material Jackson wrote.

Stanley Tucci gives us this year’s villain in much the same way Heath Ledger did in 2008. His character, Mr. Harvey, is frighteningly patient. He does more than wait for the perfect opportunity: he spends a long time drawing up plans for and building the underground bunker he will kill Susie in. He calls himself a perfectionist, and I would agree. He is completely terrifying while retaining his character’s base quiet personality. To anyone else, he is the sweet, kind, and harmless neighbor, the sort of person who would help old people cross the street without a second thought. His mask is so well crafted that no one cares if he doesn’t spend too much time out of his house. When suspicion starts to turn towards him, we see his true face. During a crucial scene, there is an amazing close-up shot of his face. He looks murderous, emitting terrible grunts like a bull about to charge. This is not the same neighborly fellow who innocently gave Susie’s mother a rose from his garden. He is a brilliantly acted psychopath.

Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz fill their roles without much astonishment. Wahlberg gives a believable performance as Susie’s grieving father, who becomes obsessed with solving the murder. His desperation never seems flat; he is, at his core, a man who loved his daughter very much. Weisz doesn’t provide him with very much support. She does the stock weeping mother shtick for a bit, and then she leaves her family. We are supposed to believe she leaves out of grief, but I was honestly just glad her character wasn’t on screen.

“The Lovely Bones” is pleasant enough, but it runs out of steam too quickly, leaving the rest of the film to shift listlessly to its unsatisfying end.

“The Lovely Bones” is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer at the movie’s official website.