“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” tells the story of a young boy named Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) whose father Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks) died in the 9/11 attacks. Thomas would often challenge Oskar to use his intellect to solve mysteries and riddles, for example, to find the “sixth New York borough”.
Oskar adored his father, for Oskar (who is extremely bright for his age) has some obsessive compulsive tendencies, and his father was the only one who really understood Oskar and helped him to understand other people and the world. Oskar desperately clings to the memory of his father, and while searching through his father’s belongings comes across a key in a small envelope labeled “Black”. Oskar than decides that he must find the owner of this key, for it must be some last adventure set up by his father for Oskar before he died. With Oskar’s methodical and logical mind, he determines that he must meet with every person with the last name “Black” in the New York City area. He eventually teams up with “The Renter”, a mysterious old man who is renting a room from Oskar’s grandma across the street. The movie is over-sentimental and crosses the line from emotion-driven to sappy at times, but the characters and story are interesting and very sympathetic. If the producers and editors had cut 20 minutes of the cheaper, sappier parts the movie could have been great.
With
all of that being said, the movie does not deserve the Best Picture nomination it
received from the Academy. The buzzword going around in other reviews and
Internet chatter is “Oscar Bait”, implying that this movie was tailor made to
appeal to the Oscars (interesting that the main character is named Oskar
isn’t it?). I will, however, differ from most people in saying that “War
Horse”, not “Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud”, is the least
deserving of its nomination, as “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is not
a terrible movie. The story is moving, but unfortunately there are just a few
overly-sappy scenes and the movie’s overall tone of self-importance detracts
from the whole. The movie also rides a very, very thin line between utilizing
and exploiting the emotion and drama of 9/11, and probably crosses it
occasionally. Whereas other 2011 movies like “50/50”, “The Descendants”, and “A
Separation” are dramas that feel real and organic, “Extremely Close &
Incredibly Loud” feels a little too forced.
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