Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I suggest you have a stack of tissues at the ready before you start watching this.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for the most part will leave you in humble silence which will eventually lead to uncontrollable bouts of incessant weeping.  The fact that it is set in and around the events of September 11^th is enough to reduce anyone to tears.  The “worst day” as referred to by Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), who’s perspective narrates the film will reduce you to a blubbering wreck.

Oskar is a highly sensitive (and possibly, on some level autistic) nine year-old “amateur inventor, Francophile and pacifist” to name but a few.  After loosing his father (Tom Hanks) to whom he was extremely close to, he searches for the lock to a mysterious key he finds… obsessively.

In order to accomplish this, he needs to find a person named Black.  Unfortunately there are over 400 people listed with that name, and so he decides to visit each and every single one.  He even deduces that it will take him 3 years to do so and as a result allocates 6 minutes to be spent with each person. 

This is an emotional journey of discovery and self discovery as he meets a variety of people and finds that reality is far removed from the calculations he lives by.  And indeed you cannot spend just 6 minutes with everyone person as each has a story that needs to be told. 

Unfortunately, as he searches for this lock and to be closer to his father, he seems to grow further apart from his mother (Sandra Bullock).

It’s clear that the death of his father has left Oskar in turmoil, more so than others as his father seemed to be everything to him.  Luckily for him, on his voyage of discovery, he meets and connects with his long lost Grandfather - played beautifully by Max von Sydow.

Between Oskar’s possible Asperger’s and his Grandfather’s inability to speak, you can see that you don’t need verbal communication to form a very strong bond.

Thomas Horn’s Oskar is the character that the film focus’ on, so essentially big names such as Bullock, Hanks, etc may feature but they’re really just supporting him.  And for his first feature film, Young Horn did quite well.  He elicited a range of emotions (at least from me) from sympathy and joy, to anger and irritation.  The latter may not be his fault.  Sometimes reality just does not always translate well on screen.  

However, Horn did shine and he shone best when in the company of the likes of Hanks and especially von Sydow.  Horn and Sydow had such beautiful chemistry that when the latter was not shown, I began to feel a little bored.

In fact von Sydow on his own was a revelation.  He does not utter a word, but everything is clearly communicated through his facial expressions and body language.  The scene where he hears his son’s voice for the first time reduced me to a sobbing wreck.

I believe the only thing I truly disliked about the film and you’ll have to forgive me for this, is Oskar’s rambling rants.  I understand that there are people in the world who are like this, I deal with them on a daily basis, however being truly authentic does not always work on the big screen.  Maybe if his rambling had been shortened and a few scenes trimmed, it would have made for an outstanding film.  It’ll just have to settle for excellent. 

So, to conclude I’ll remind you to take your hankies; please be mindful of your neighbours whilst blubbering and enjoy an excellently emotive drama.