With all this Hobbit talk, I’d almost forgotten that Peter Jackson had made another film. Almost.

Adapted from Alice Sebold’s novel by regular Jackson writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, The Love Bones is part part mystery and part drama; a story of a murdered girl who helps her family solve the mystery of her death from “heaven”. Go ahead and read that sentence again if you’d like – I had quite the time putting my head around this one. The casting is excellent: Saoirse Ronan in the lead role as Susie, Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as her parents, Michael Imperioli as the cop investigating the murder, Susan Sarandon as the grandmother and Stanley Tucci as the murderer. If the cast isn’t enough of a sell, the inclusion of Jackson should certainly help but nothing about this trailer is speaking to me. Nothing.

Susie’s heaven looks strung together, wildly beautiful yet unimaginative, the acting looks stilted and to make matters worse, it looks like we may have to rely on Wahlberg’s performace for a part of the story (not to say he can’t be good but here he sounds more like The Happening Wahlberg than Three Kings Wahlberg). The best parts of these two minutes of video are the retro clothes, Imperioli playing the cop rather than the mobster and Tucci looking nothing like his usual self.

I’m not ready to completely write this off in hopes that this is Jackson in Heavenly Creatures mode but truth be told, I’m not feeling it.

The Love Bones opens on December 11th.

Trailer is tucked under the seat or see it in HD at Apple.