Movie Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

PG-13, 2 hr. 9 min.

Directed By

Stephen Daldry

Written By

Eric Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer

Genres

Drama

Main Actors: Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, Max Von Sydow, John Goodman

Easy on the eyes factor: It's New York City. Of course it's beautiful. And Sandra looks good.

30 Minute Rule: Very compelling. Great interaction between the father & son. Good build up to the climactic parts of the film. Reels you in for sure in the first 15 minutes.

Plot: Oskar (Thomas Horn) is convinced that his father (Tom Hanks), who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, has left a final message for him hidden somewhere in the city. Feeling disconnected from his grieving mother (Sandra Bullock) and driven by a relentlessly active mind that refuses to believe in things that can't be observed, Oskar begins searching New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he found in his father's closet. His journey through the five boroughs takes him beyond his own loss to a greater understanding of the observable world around him.

My Review: Close your eyes. Now picture Macaulay Culkin. Then remember "Home Alone". You remember laughing out loud at his antics. Now take a similar little boy, running around New York City much like little Kevin McCallister, only this time, instead of laughing, he's trying to make you cry and tug on your heart strings.

Thomas Horn is the boy who played as Oskar Schell. It was his first acting ever. And I do mean ever. No movies, no TV, no Mickey Mouse Club, no Sesame Street, no Nickolodeon, Nada. First time ever. So, he gets a huge pass for his overacting and annoying rants. You might ask why the director selected this kid with no acting experience. My theory is that they needed a kid that was extremely intelligent, intellectual, and could possibly build rockets. Oskar's dialogue and thought process in the film was so complex and extremely smart. He used the vocabulary of a Harvard grad. But he had the charm and charisma of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense and Pay It Forward. So it worked. Thomas Horn's claim to fame is that he won Kid's Week on Jeopardy. So again, any shortcomings are not totally his fault.

The problem that I have with this film is that it tries so hard to be a warm heartfelt film and it plays on the emotions and atrocity of 9/11. It makes the attacks very personal. And while many of us that were not close to 9/11 or did not have any friends or family affected by the aftermath of 9/11, Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud gives us this feeling. As if we were directly affected by the loss of Thomas Schell, the father. The most chilling scenes were the voice mails from his dad calling the house from the burning building. I got goosebumps during these scenes.

Throughout the movie, you follow Oskar's interactions with New Yorkers and how he is affected and he affects them. I thought the best actor in the whole movie was Sandra Bullock; who over time is becoming a better and better actress. She plays the mother and wife of this drama. And she carries the picture. She has this out of control, aloof, intelligent boy roaming the mean streets of New York City and she has to handle all of this with, not to mention, the loss of her recently deceased husband. She's brilliant.

Max Von Sydow plays "the renter". With over 60 years of acting and more than 140 film credits, why make this fabulous actor a mute is beyond my comprehension. And to let the boy upstage him with all of his non-stop, disrespectful, Kevin McCallister-type banter, just drove me crazy. There were so many times during this film that I wanted the boy slapped by either "The Renter" or by his mom. Because he would just not shut up. Also, while Viola Davis was getting much deserved praise in 2011 for her role in "The Help", she was certainly deserving of praise for her small but significant role in Extremely Close.

Overall, I liked the movie. And I say that very weakly. I thought that it was smart and charming, but I also found it to be a little annoying in the I-bet-I-can-make-you-cry department. And I think that many of you will cry. Incessantly.

Rating: 5 of 10