The plot of the movie itself is very fair to women. I especially loved the character of the sister. She was tough, athletic, and so brave. I also appreciated the non-stereotypical reactions of both parents to Susie's death. The mom takes off to California and the dad stays home obsessing over his daughter's murder. This could have been done the other way around, and it would've made the story less touching, in my opinion. These two characters become more real because of the non-traditional choices made by the filmmakers. I bet it didn't hurt that The Lovely Bones is based closely on the book by a female author.
Here's my beef, though. When you make a film about the rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old child, you have to do it really, really carefully. I think the book made it work. I don't know if the movie quite got there. It's just really tough to say on film, sensitively, that this girl is treated in the worst possible way a human being can be treated, her murderer is never caught, and, in the end, it's all good.
This is really more of a critique of the artistic choices of the film, though, than of the filmmakers' intentions with regard to gender. I think it was a good effort, and it was a truly memorable movie for me.
