“If the sun were to explode, we wouldn’t even know about it for eight minutes,” says Oskar Schell, an 11-year-old who has been traumatized by the 9/11 death of his father. This film is the emotional story of how Oskar tries to stretch his theoretical eight minutes with his father.
Oskar stretches his eight minutes well in this two-hour film and sets his audience on a venture full of tears. As he proves to the viewers with great catharsis, no matter how difficult the journey may be, never stop looking until the answer has been found. It is worth it. Always an excellent "moral of the story."
Furthermore:
This movie was incredible. I don't just say that because it's in the title.
It was on the same level as 2011's Hugo in my book. That's as good as it gets.
This review would not be complete without the mention of the amazing acting of Zoe Caldwell as Thomas' mother and Max von Sydow "the renter" (a character that I really cannot spoil for you here).
Please visit IMDb: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for more information on the film.
Thank you for reading/following!
Oskar Schell (played by the champion of Kids Week Jeapordy, Thomas Horn) sets off on a journey to find any possible links to his father. In the mind of a socially awkward 11-year-old, one would obviously attempt to seek out their father by finding the owner of a key that they found in the deceased closet. Right?
This is what his mission is: finding the lock that fits this mystery-key to stretch the connection that he had with his father. (One may wonder why Oskar would go through all of this trouble throughout a whole movie. Simple answer: he and his father played "reconnoissance games." The movie starts with Thomas and Oskar looking for the "sixth borough of New York.")
How do you make that a into movie? If I were to insert my own opinion here before actually watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I would say that this sounds more like a sad short story than a film that deserves some Oscars. The creators, directors, writers, and actors, however, all answer my question in a way that still makes me want to inform everyone to see this movie right away.
One major way that this story becomes the award-deserving film that is now in theaters is by casting America's cinema royalty in two of the most key roles: the mother (Linda) and father (Thomas) of Oskar Schell (played by Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, respectively).
Undoubtedly, 9/11 is a difficult subject to make a movie about. Others have tried, and I will not lie, I always had a strange feeling about the films that I've seen that are about the event. Sometimes, it is just poor taste, other times it seems too soon. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, as far as I am concerned, took this issue into a great amount of thought and did not disappoint.
The casting, as I have mentioned before, makes this film, truly because these actors really seemed to play their roles in ways that are respectful of the event. Furthermore, when the falling Twin Towers are shown on-screen, it is somber, especially watching it when following the powerful journey that Oskar is on. I could almost grasp onto some of the emotions he would have felt. (I know there are some negative reviews of the film because of the subject matter that I have just discussed, and I cannot argue with them. All I can say is that this film is respectful of what they were talking about.)
It may be hard to move beyond the underlying theme of tragedy, however, there is far more to this film than just sorrowful moments. Along Oskar's journey to find the lock to his father's key, he meets hundreds of people (all with the last name Black and all living in the NYC area, as the key was in an envelope with just one word written on it: Black). Each of these people he meets gives him something to remember them by, whether he wants to or not. With every visit, he takes a picture and adds it to a scrapbook that creatively documents all of his searching.
Oskar stretches his eight minutes well in this two-hour film and sets his audience on a venture full of tears. As he proves to the viewers with great catharsis, no matter how difficult the journey may be, never stop looking until the answer has been found. It is worth it. Always an excellent "moral of the story."
Furthermore:
This movie was incredible. I don't just say that because it's in the title.
It was on the same level as 2011's Hugo in my book. That's as good as it gets.
This review would not be complete without the mention of the amazing acting of Zoe Caldwell as Thomas' mother and Max von Sydow "the renter" (a character that I really cannot spoil for you here).
Please visit IMDb: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for more information on the film.
Thank you for reading/following!
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