An apt title, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close features overbearing and in your face dramatics that will have viewers grinding their teeth instead of wiping away tears.
It all boils down to the lead character Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), a young boy whose father (Tom Hanks) died in 9/11. It’s clear that Oskar is different from other kids. He’s bright, inquisitive, quirky. He’s also rude, prying and annoying, spouting off facts and numbers at lightning speed as if he were an automaton on overdrive. Simply put, he’s just too much. Oskar has our sympathies, but not our patience.
The crux of the film revolves around Oskar’s search for a lock to match a mysterious key, which belonged to his father. Across the five boroughs of New York City he investigates with the name “Black” his only clue, as his grieving mother (Sandra Bullock) watches on. What is for certain is that Extremely Loud… is a slick looking film, well shot and edited with a driving score by Alexandre Desplat.
Directing Extremely Loud… is Stephen Daldry. His last film The Reader took a not very likeable character – an SS guard jailed for war crimes played by Kate Winslet – and successfully fleshed her out, drawing our sympathies. Daldry doesn’t repeat the same success here, unable to provide enough insight amongst the bells and whistles.
Worse is that the film is scripted by Eric Roth, he of similar “journey into identity” movies Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Perhaps if Oskar had some of the warmth of Forrest, he wouldn’t come off as such a brat.
The supporting performances are the films best asset. Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis are wasted yet never the less effective in their limited screen time. But it’s Swedish giant Max Von Sydow who stands tall, keeping that rich, timbre voice of his at bay with a moving silent performance.
Good thing too, because any more noise in Extremely Loud… would result in blown speakers and bleeding ears. Perhaps it was that silence that moved Academy voters into giving Sydow a welcome, yet unwarranted Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Only God knows what prompted them to give this a best picture nod.
There is no misunderstanding about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It’s a movie about an emotionally confused boy trying to make sense of his father’s death. We get it.
Yet its louder is better approach is just too much. The tantrums, the tears, the bloody tambourine that Oskar shakes at every given moment. It all culminates into a dizzying mesh of over the top sentiment. Extremely loud and incredibly close? You betcha. |