It was with a small dose of trepidation that we approached “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” based on the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, but only because images and emotions from 9/11 are still difficult to absorb.
Yet this beautiful film (opening wide January 20) is well worth the trip back in time to that trauma of “the horrible day,” as it is called by the main character, a precocious and intuitive boy named Oskar Schell, played by an outstanding young actor named Thomas Horn.
As we see in flashbacks, he is especially close with his father (Tom Hanks) who takes Oskar on exploratory, scientific adventures all over Manhattan and insists that there is a missing sixth borough– a concept that fascinates the boy no end.
When his father asked him to bring back something from every decade, the boy produces a rock, much to his father’s delight. Thus we see the the solidity of the relationship, even as Mom (Sandra Bullock) doesn’t seem to have much of a role other than to be supportive of them.
We are not giving anything away here to say that the father perishes in the twin towers, after a heartbreaking series of missed phone messages left on the answering machine of the home where Oskar has not yet arrived after being let out of school early.
Never able to ascribe meaning to the tragedy and becoming increasingly estranged from his mother, Oskar fixates on a key he finds hidden away in his father’s belongings, a key that he hopes will unlock the mystery of why his dad had to die, or at least give him a message from beyond or some type of meaning.
He’s already shown himself to be an incredibly bright child with a growing obsessive/compulsive disorder, which works to his favor in mapping out and tracking down the clues that he feels will lead him to what the key unlocks.
Afraid of public transportation, he walks great distances in the search. All the while, as he pushes his mother away, he becomes closer with his paternal grandmother, who lives across the way in a building that he can see from his bedroom window. They communicate by walkie-talkie and grandma warns him not to talk to a strange man who rents a room at her place, a person she simply calls “the renter.”
Played by Max von Sydow as a man who can’t speak and writes down his answers or comments quickly on paper or shows the “yes” or “no” that are written on the palm of each hand, young Oskar becomes fascinated with him and quickly begins to view him as a father figure. So much so that the mystery man is asked to come along on the journeys to find the lock the the key fits.
It is here that “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” soars to new emotional heights as the boy learns to overcome his fears, which include meeting the diverse group of people who may be able to provide answers to his search.
Through all of his methodical searching, and just when he’s close to giving up, Oskar does finally find the person who has the key the the lock opens– and the movie takes an entirely new direction in a journey the audience will never forget.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, rated PG-13
Directed by Stephen Daldry, written by Eric Roth
