Tan fuerte y tan cerca

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a film that haunts you all day after the closing credits. I just watched it this morning, Sept. 11th, 2012--weeping continually, which is not a typical reaction from me. Powerful stuff.

The story is about a child who lost his father in the World Trade Center attacks on that fateful day in our country's history. It is his journey to reconnect with his father's memory by going on a quest to find the lock that fits the key left mysteriously in a vase in his father's closet. Along the way, this shy and sensitive boy Oskar is forced to meet and interact with a range of citizens, and to hear their stories too.

More importantly, it is about connectedness. It is about realizing that you aren't alone in your pain, and learning how to reach out to others for help and comfort. It is about realizing that your alone-ness is an illusion.

I loved, loved, loved the chemistry of the father and son in the flashback scenes, loved the delightful and unconventional expeditions they embarked upon, and enjoyed coming along with Oskar and The Renter to solve the final mystery of the key. I thought that the child actor playing Oskar was wonderful in this breakout role; he carried the movie quite well, almost singlehandedly-- except for those scenes with Max Von Sydow's silent character, The Renter. Of course Von Sydow stole the show, and totally deserved his Academy nomination. In all, the actors were brilliant and compelling to match the heartfelt script.

Yes, there was a certain amount of emotional manipulation involved in this tearjerker (what else could you expect from a Sandra Bullock production nowadays?). I can overlook that and wholeheartedly recommend EL&IC to anybody as possibly the best "9/11" film to date.

This seems to be really one of those cases of you'll either love this movie or completely, totally hate it. I personally really wasn't expecting much from this movie and knew very little about it as well but I was completely surprised and wowed by it. It's a really warm, heartfelt movie, filled with both adventure and drama.

Things could had so easily turned cheap and sappy in this movie but it really didn't. Instead the movie at all times felt like a real warm and honest one, with some great storytelling in it and no, I'm normally absolutely not a fan of Stephen Daldry's movies and directing approach. What I absolutely loved about this movie is that it's being told almost entirely from the eyes of a child, who has lost his father and is trying to cope with it by going on, what he thinks, is the one last adventure through the city of New York, that his father had planned for him.

Really, over the years we have had many adventure movies of course but how many of them successfully combined it with some true heartfelt drama in it as well. On that level this movie is already really an unique and original one, that works on so many different levels.

It seems that the only reason why some people have some major problems with this movie and are even offended by it is because its drama involves 9/11 and uses its events to emote its audience. And of course while they have a point about this, I didn't feel at all as if it was using it in a cheap or gimmicky way, to easily get emotions from its audience. The only one thing I will complain about was that it kept referencing a bit too much at it at times. Really, one mention of it could had sufficed but the movie instead kept using some flashbacks at times, which were still powerful but it got done 2 or 3 times too many in my opinion. Besides, there were times I even got confused by it and didn't always intermediately noticed that it was a flashback I was watching.

I was absolutely loving all of the characters in this movie and also really liked it that the movie had the guts to portray a little kid as a little kid for a change and not one with some fake emotions, feelings and thoughts. Everybody was a kid once, some much longer ago than others but I do believe everybody should be able to identify in one way or another with its main character, played by the young Thomas Horn, who made his acting debut with this movie. But the same more or less goes for all of the other characters as well, who got very well written and got played by some well known and great actors. This movie probably features both Tom Hanks' and Sandra Bullock's best performance of the past years and Max von Sydow, who never says a word in this movie, even got nominated for an Oscar for his role in this movie.

Really, this is one of the best 2011 movies I have seen and it also definitely ranks among my favorite ones as well.

8/10

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At thirty minutes in I was wondering who would be the first to leave the small audience in the cinema. By the end of this movie I, and the few others, simply sat with our metaphorical mouths agape at the impact of what we had just seen. A slow, meandering, and with hindsight, entirely necessary beginning gives way to a riveting and gripping story. A story which you would expect to bring you to tears (and it will for some) but is ultimately about triumph. It may appear to be a story about 9/11 and such was the enormity of that event that it would be easy to suggest that this is just an excellently acted and well-crafted story about that day. That would be to undersell this movie. 9/11 is just the vehicle which carries the message of how our everyday, minor irritations with other people and our general lives are simply unimportant in comparison to the reality that most people are just trying to do their best in our jobs, our marriages and in our relationships. We are imperfect and the enormity of 9/11 hammered that home. These couple of hours repeats the exercise. But this movie does more than use the day's story in such a simplistic way. Rather, it weaves the tragedy into the story of lives that are already living with sadness and it allows those participants to view their personal tragedies in the context of the much bigger one. To use the "device" of a compulsive child (what a performance!)forces us voyeurs to focus more clearly on the everyday minutiae which both he and we come to see as insignificant. A wonderful experience...this movie will stay with me for the rest of my days.

A fair warning before you step into this 9/11 drama based on the acclaimed novel by Johnathan Safran Foer- the protagonist, a nine-year- old boy living in New York City, isn't someone you'll embrace easily, even though the fact that he had lost his father in the Twin Towers should win much sympathy. Indeed, while we may accept a certain degree of immaturity from the kid due to his age, it's appalling to hear him say that his dad- whose body like the thousands who perished was never found- might just be 'dog faeces' in Central Park, or that he wished it was his mother who had lost her life instead.

Oskar Schell (played by newcomer Thomas Horn) is rather the abrasive kid who is both precocious and socially awkward- though test results on Asperger's syndrome turned out inconclusive. One year after that fateful day, Oskar steps inside his father's closet and finds a key inside an envelope with the name 'Black' scrawled on the front. Thinking that it might be one of his father, Thomas' (Tom Hanks), elaborate puzzles he used to concoct in order to force his son to interact with people, Oskar sets off on a personal quest to track down the source of the key.

Equipped with a backpack of essentials- including an Israeli gas mask, 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawkings, and a tambourine that he uses to calm himself amid the din and bustle of the city- Oskar traverses by foot through the five boroughs of New York knocking on the doors of everyone with the last name 'Black' he can locate in the phone book. Some of the people he meets include a married couple (Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright) on the verge of divorce, a religious woman who offers up Oskar's mission to God, and a transsexual with a lifestyle too wild for Oskar's comfort- it takes all sorts to make the world, and if each of these attempts turn out futile, it at least fulfils his father's hope that Oskar will learn to be more sociable.

Each encounter is also an affirmation of the collective tragedy that was 9/11, as Oskar's story moves those he meets to concern and compassion be they survivors or mourners. The unanimous display of empathy is poignant, reaffirming humanity's ability to unite behind grief and loss. But screenwriter Eric Roth makes this journey as much about the mutual heroism of New Yorkers trying to make sense and come to terms with the senselessness and devastation as it is about an individual family's struggle to recover from the very disaster.

Just as affecting therefore is the examination of the effect that Thomas' death has on the dynamics of the family- the mother Linda (Sandra Bullock) coping with her husband's passing while trying her best to win the understanding and love of her son; and the grandmother (Zoe Caldwell) thrust into an uneasy position as Oskar's confidant even as he rebuffs his mother. Oskar also forms a connection with a certain mysterious Renter (Max von Sydow) living in his grandmother's apartment, whose willingness to accompany Oskar on his trips belies a painful secret and a deeper personal motivation.

No stranger to heavy-handed dramas, director Stephen Daldry (his fourth feature after the critically acclaimed 'Billy Elliot', 'The Hours' and 'The Reader') handles the potentially histrionic proceedings with surprising deftness. Especially heartrending is Linda's predicament- a scene where she breaks down from hearing Oskar say the words 'I love you' just outside the main door after he leaves in a huff is particularly touching; while a plot twist late into the movie that shows the extent of a mother's love for her son will leave only the hardest of hearts unmoved. Bullock is uncharacteristically low-key but very effective in the role, her heartbreak keenly felt through her grimaces and tears.

Daldry also gets an excellent performance from von Sydow- with wordless shrugs and sighs, he effortlessly conveys his character's troubled past, one so traumatising that he has chosen to remain silent and relate to others with a simple 'yes' on one palm and 'no' on the other. And at the heart of it all is Thomas Horn's mesmerising turn, the 'Kids Jeopardy' winner utterly captivating as the bright but socially inept kid trying desperately to cling onto the one thing that he thinks will help him remain connected to his deceased father.

Appropriately then, the film has been nominated for Best Picture honours- though amongst the nine nominees this year, this is probably the lowest rated overall by critics. Many have criticised Daldry's mawkish sentimentality for undermining the material, but in truth, we thought there was much restraint and nuance in his method. In fact, Daldry deserves praise for preserving both the poignancy and pathos of his source novel, delicately portraying both the effect of 9/11 on a sensitive boy and his family as well as that of the larger community around him. True it takes some time to get to understand Oskar on his level, but the very fact that Daldry has retained the inherent eccentrics of his key character is the surest sign that this is not your typical maudlin 9/11 drama. It is stimulating to say the least, extremely tender and incredibly uplifting.

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Although the main character is a young boy, it is not a children movie, and cannot be recommended to all families either... This boy has teenage emotions and adult attitudes, and most of his deeds or conceptions cannot be considered as examples for "normal" families. And how to distinct stubbornness from persistence? The plot - having a tragic/sad background - is rather uneven and some unrealistic moments (e.g. mother's assistance in searching), with trivial pre-ending and expected ending. However, the movie contains 2 excellent (Thomas Horn and Max von Sydow) and at least 4 great performances (Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis). Thanks to them, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is pleasant to watch, but I am unable to explain why I had a kind of internal discontent when the credits appeared... Perhaps too vast scrutinizing with general human topics? Still, this movie is for you if you search something different.