While watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I was feeling extremely restless and incredibly annoyed.
Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, and nominated for this year's Oscar Best Picture, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is about a 9-year-old autistic boy, Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), who lost his father (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attacks and has difficulty moving on. One year later, and still unable to come to terms with his father's death, he accidentally finds a strange key in his father's closet and this inspires him to search for the matching lock and find closure. And we follow Oskar as he goes on a "Reconnaissance Expedition" in New York, meeting various people along the way.
Directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot), the movie is clearly intended to break your heart and move you. However, because the Oskar character is supremely obnoxious and insufferable, you are unable to sympathize with him. You feel indifferent to his search, and you wish he'd find the lock already so he can finally shut up. Beyond the boy's annoying motormouth and emotional outbursts, behind the mask of his awful personality, you don't see a pure child that you'd want to hold in your arms and comfort. His character is flat. Flat, one-dimensional, and obnoxious. And because the storyline is thin and bland and self-conscious, sadly, there's nothing to rely on for a rich experience in this movie but him. Not even the film's musical score managed to tug at your heartstrings.
Sandra Bullock plays Oskar's emotionally detached mother, and although Bullock is persuasive and transparently heartbroken, she's rarely in the scene because it's all about the boy and his POV. A mysterious old man who eventually joins Oskar in the last leg of his search, brilliantly played by Max von Sydow (Oscar-nominated for Actor in a Supporting Role), gives the movie a tad of color and warmth, but alas, even he couldn't save this pretentious movie.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close rings true to its title: the boy is so annoying that the whole time, you feel that his voice is extremely loud and incredibly close to your ears-- an absolute endurance test for you to finish it just to understand why the hell it was nominated for an Oscar. And I absolutely don't know why.
Comments