Star Rating: 2/5

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a movie that should be perfect. I has an interesting story concept, brilliant actors, an Oscar winning director, a phenomenal screenwriter and is based on a novel by an award-winning writer.

What happened instead would be akin to trying to make a wonderful cake using all the finest ingredients. The worlds best bacon, imported cheese, organic tofu, Doritos and a pair of Nike socks. Just because you use the best of everything does not mean that it will turn out good.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tries to be so many things, a portrait of grief, a look into a child’s mind, a character study, a link connecting people and emotions together and a mystery. As much as I hate to say it, it failed on all fronts.

The reason I hate to give this movie a bad review is because it should have been good. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was written by Jonathan Safran Foer, whose other novel, Everything is Illuminated was turned into a film starring Elijah Wood in 2005. Eric Roth served as screenwriter. Roth is responsible for writing the screenplay for many amazing films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Horse Whisperer and Forrest Gump.

Director Stephen Daldry has three Academy Awards on his mantel from his direction of The Reader, The Hours and Billy Elliot, which were all amazing movies.

The story is quite simple, after the death of his father, played by Tom Hanks, in the September 11th attacks, young Oskar Schell, played by Hollywood newcomer Thomas Horn, finds a key in his fathers closet.

Oskar is determined to find out what the key opens, hoping it will contain a final message from his father and help him get over his death.

Oskar then sets out across the boroughs of New York City to try to find clues. Along his way, he meets different people from all different backgrounds that help him to better understand life and death.
 

Oskar also suffers from not only severe confusion and grief, he also suffers from a mild form of autism.

One of the biggest flaws of this film is that it is trying to be too much. I have never seen such a long movie that says nothing and goes nowhere. It tries to be a story about tragedy and grief, but just comes off and preachy and annoying instead. It also comes off as a little disrespectful. Thousands of lives were lost on September 11 and instead of honoring them, this film fictionalizes them and tries to add a layer of humanity to a day that does not need fictionalization to be tragic.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close also tries to be a character study and delve into the mind of a grieving, autistic child. The problem is that it never really gives us anything to help us understand Oskar or to even feel for him. Most of the movie just leaves the audience thinking how badly the child needs therapy and wondering why he is not getting the help her clearly needs.

The film also tries to create a sense of unity and connection. So many people were touched by September 11, but more than that, people are connected by life, love and loss. We all experience these things and this is something that the film tries to convey. It does so in such a thin and diluted way though, that the idea is almost completely lost. There are entire characters that should have emotional impact and help move the story forward, but do nothing. They seem to just be there to take up screen time and add another name to the credits.

The last storyline of the film involved the mystery of the key. I cannot say much about it without giving it away, except to say that it is not worth the two hours.
 

Even the order of the scenes seem to make no sense. The movie attempts to tell the story in a non-linear style. This does work in most films because it helps to build anticipation and reveals key information at the most emotionally effective time. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close does not do this though. Instead, I think they just threw all of their scenes in a hat and pulled them out randomly. Whatever order they came out of the hat in, was the order it hit the screen.

Unfortunately, there is really not much good I can say about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Even the name of the movie is horrible (yes it is the name of the book, but that does not make it good title.) There is even a joke that the film should be renamed Extremely Pretentious and Incredibly Lame. That is a pretty good summary.

The only good scene in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close came courtesy of Sandra Bullock as Oskar’s grieving mother. In her first film since her Oscar winning role in The Blind Side, (which is a way better movie then this!) Bullock proves yet again she has serious acting talent. Fifteen good minutes is not worth an entire two hours though and if you do go see this film, you will know exactly what scene I am talking about.

Overall, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was a weak film. It tried to do too much, but did not do any of it very well. If you want to see a movie about a young boy solving a mystery, go see Hugo instead (it should be out on DVD soon). If you want a film about grief, check out Daldry’s other work The Hours. If you are interested in September 11, there are any number of films or documentaries that do a better job capturing the emotion. If autism interests you, check out Temple Grandin instead, actually you should watch that movie anyhow, it is amazing, unlike this film which is extremely long and incredibly dull.