Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

A story about loss in the tragedy of September 11th 2001. How many times have we seen something like this? This time it's a young boy who lost his father in the twin towers. I thought it would be much much better than it was. The book it's based on, I'm hoping, is much better. Parts of the movie were good, but they were few and far between.

The story is about a nine-year-old boy who goes on an adventure to find what the key his father left him is for. And it's a good story. Had it not been overshadowed by 9/11 I think it would have made an even better story, but the story was drowned out by the persistent referrals to "the worst day."

The main character was the biggest problem with this story. He is petrified of nearly everything, yet when he's wandering around a huge city like New York he seems totally fine. Maybe that's because he has his tambourine with him. Incessant noise while he is roaming the city. He is afraid of being in places he could get stuck, yet he locks himself in the bathroom at one point. The character had too many problems for me to like him. Then the actor who portrayed Oskar Schell, Thomas Horn, was far too articulate. No nine-year-old living in New York talks that properly. Every single syllable was enunciated far beyond what it should have been.

Tom Hanks didn't really bring much to the movie. He wasn't in it very much except for some flashbacks. When he was, he and Sandra Bullock brought some emotion to the screen. Sandra Bullock's performance was a good followup to The Blind Side, but nowhere near as good as that was. I was expecting award worth performances from everyone (with the hype the movie was getting) and I got less than average acting on the whole. Thomas Horn not only articulated too much, but some of his mannerisms were just too out there for me to want to follow him. Maybe that's just the character again, or maybe it's because this was his first movie.

I went into the movie openminded and ready for anything. Unfortunately, due to the over articulation of the main character and a strange overall plot with no surprises I lost interest a little before the halfway mark. Another thing that always bothers me with certain movies around this time is the obvious plea for nominations. "Let's take this award winning actress and this award winning actor together with this 'no-name' kid, put them in a life-changing situation, and add some tears. We've got some nominations and wins in the bag!" Ridiculous. That's not to say that everything was not up to par for this movie.

Overall, this was exquisitely put together. Beautiful shots following young Oskar through New York made the movie interesting and were the only things holding my interest. I truly think that had the movie not revolved around 9/11 I would have enjoyed it much more. Instead I found myself thinking about that day and where I was and what I did when I should have been paying attention to the movie.

6/10