Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a film adaptation of a Jonathan Safran Foer book with the same title about Oskar, a little boy who has an unstated mental disability. His dad, played by US’ most beloved actor, Tom Hanks, dies on 9/11. Oskar tries to recover from losing his dad, who is the person that he loves the most, by tricking himself into believing that his father left one last citywide scavenger hunt for him to solve.
My mom, who does not ordinarily watch any movie that is not completely based on a true story, was attracted to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close after hearing that synopsis, but instantly regretted her choice because she found the child off-putting, the timeline confusing and the length of the movie excessive. While I would argue that the child is not supposed to be the usual, personable, well-adjusted child that audiences are supposed to instantly love, I don’t really disagree with her. When making a film on children struggling with death and loss, you need a Spanish director like Guillermo del Toro or at least one of his mentees, who somehow makes emptiness magical without diminishing its gravity.
One difficulty about criticizing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is that I never read the book so I have no idea if the story’s flaws should rest at the filmmaker’s feet or Foer’s. It feels like it is aiming for John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany in which there is a reassuring and implicit promise that all the disparate parts will add up and feel miraculous retroactively, but it is closer to Gilmore Girls’ Stars Hollow, the Netflix reboot, in which New York City has somehow transformed into some twee, imagined creation, not a living, breathing, sprawling metropolis. I like the idea that Oskar’s mournful quest unintentionally reveals the existence of the sixth borough, an invisible New York City tied by common human emotion. The movie title is painfully accurate—there are times when the movie seems incredibly close to genuinely feeling wondrous in the last twenty-four minutes of the one hundred twenty nine minute feature thanks to Sandra Bullock tucking the movie under her arm and just walking away with it, but it is not sustainable.
It is also possible that I missed important plot points that were explained throughout Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. For instance, why was the father at the World Trade Center on 9/11? I understand that the Blacks were not the point of the story, Oskar was, but it was incredibly frustrated to get so close to the resolution of tertiary characters’ stories just to stop short because Oskar isn’t as naturally invested in others’ stories and lacks empathy because of his developmental disorder. The film mostly did a good job of shackling us to this kid and making us feel how he felt, especially regarding his sensitivity to noise and other external stimuli, but occasionally gave in and shifted focus to show us what ultimately happened to the more interesting characters in his world. Unfortunately that meant excessive volume adjustment throughout the entire movie. Even though they are not the point, I do feel that if you are going to break your own rule about focus, go big or go home and let Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright hijack your whole movie and get a better reception to the movie.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has an amazing cast, but because Oskar is the main focus of the story, overall they feel wasted. On one hand, I’m glad that Max von Syndow does not end up hijacking the movie, solving both his and Oskar’s problems before the end then gives us a cliché, pat resolution with him and the rest of the family, but the whole enterprise with him felt gradually measured as he plays a role of increasing importance in the narrative then abruptly curt. Just because Oskar does not have a sense of rhythm does not mean that the movie should not either. Also while I love Bullock and Hanks, there is something wrong with the Oscars if they have one, and von Syndow does not. There is no justice in the world. Side note: Christopher Plummer wins for snagging Beginners instead of this movie.
I felt simultaneously amused and messed with because the first time that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close shows us a black character, we get Oskar lying about Martin Luther King Jr. day. The locksmith could not get the census lie? There were a lot of moments that could be seen as inappropriate or unintentionally funny. For instance, Oskar reveals a lot of information to strangers in long, emotional dialogues, and in one scene, he confesses his suicidal ideations to a character that reacts by going to bed, which I found hilarious because I deal with stress that way, but is probably not the proper way to respond.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close does not work, and you do need to watch the entire film to understand the excellent last twenty four minutes, but I do not think that it is ultimately worth your time. When you’re being made to feel something, it should not feel so manipulative and exploitive. It needed a better editor. It needed someone unflinchingly unafraid of death and shattering a child’s heart. Usually jut having a movie set in New York City makes my heart flutter and makes me more inclined to like the film, but visually I never had a moment that made me catch my breath and ache to be back in my hometown so I could see it in person. If a filmmaker does not know how to do that and does not understand that New York City is always a character in any movie or television show that it is in, he is faking the funk and probably should have never attempted to make this adaptation in the first place. Skip it unless you are compelled to see every film that one or more of the cast members are in.