With a few twists and turns that leave even some of the most veteran movie goers surprised, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is brought to life with incredible performances, amazing film work, and a great script.
A boy searches for the answer to the one last question that his dad left him. Image Courtesy of Google Images
The story starts at a funeral, where everyone is remembering Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks, Toy Story 3), a man who died in the World Trade Center Attacks on 9/11. His son, Oskar (Thomas Horn), sits in the limo while waiting to leave. Quickly, a year passes, and Oskar gathers up his courage to finally enter his father’s room since “ The Worst Day Ever,” 9/11, to find something that could connect him to his now lost father. After knocking over a vase, he finds a key in a small manila envelope with the word “Black” on it. After figuring out that Black is the name of some person, Oskar takes it upon himself to find out who Black is.
Throughout the movie, we see constant flashbacks of Oskar with his father. It becomes clear that Oskar is strongly attached to his father, and the loss makes it harder for him to move on with life. But as Oskar goes through his self-made quest, you see the straining relationship of the young boy and his mother (Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side), who seems distant for most of the movie. In Oskar’s trips through New York, he eventually meets up with the renter (Max Von Sydow, Shutter Island) of a room in his grandmother’s (Zoe Caldwell, Medea) apartment. The old man who rents the apartment joins Oskar’s mission to find the lock the key belongs to. The old man proves to be important to Oskar, because he pushes Oskar to step out of his shell, to face his fears and live his life.
Always looking back, trying to recapture a memory or a person. Image Courtesy of Google Images
In the movie, it is fairly apparent that Oskar suffers from a mental disorder. His dad had created different tasks for him to complete in order to try and get over his disability. That is part of what the big deal about finding the missing lock, because he thinks the key is one last clue left to him by his dad. Oskar goes through several emotional breakdowns because of the illogical answers to some of the questions he asks. The audience also sees Oskar go through his different fears, and eventually manages to beat some of them.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close covers two very touchy topics. The first one is mental disorders; with it appearing that Oskar has some form of autism. The other subject is 9/11. Most movies avoid these ideas at most costs, because for the movie to be good and contain one of these requires a fair amount of tact. The fact that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close not only involves both of these ideas, but also manages to keep both ideas from dominating the story makes the movie stand above many others.
The movie is not always spot-on with its moments. When Oskar first meets the old man, the reason they meet does not make much sense. Oskar is trying to reach his grandmother over an old radio, and then someone in the next room over contacts him with Morse code using a light switch. After going to investigate who sent the message, the mysterious renter is reveled, and for some reason that does not make complete sense, Oskar has an emotional break down. The whole scene is well performed by the actors, and edited magnificently, but the whole point of the scene makes little sense.
Sometimes a mother's touch makes it all better. Image Courtesy of Google Images
This movie is a real tearjerker. Many scenes will cause the audience to feel for Oskar and his struggles with the world. The film does contain funny moments, like an oxymoron war, where two people take turns coming up with an oxymoron until they both cannot think of any more. Even with these intermediate silly moments, the movie does not lose its seriousness or its hold on the audience’s hearts. This movie is worth it to see, and definitely deserves its Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
Rating:★★★★☆
