Movie review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

A graceful blend of a 9/11 story and a tale of a father and son.

It’s been just over 10 years since the horrific events of 9/11, and it’s hardly any easier to have the imagery and sounds of that day brought up again. In 2006, two films – United 93 and World Trade Center – attempted to dramatize real events, with the former being much more successful than the latter in the "respectful" category. Since then, other films have dealt with 9/11 in a broad sense, but few have attempted to directly confront the experience of that day and the fallout that many felt afterward.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, based on the 2005 Jonathan Safran Foer novel, takes that issue head-on, as its main character, Oskar Schell (newcomer Thomas Horn), along with his mother (Sandra Bullock), is grieving the loss of his father, Thomas (Tom Hanks), who was in the World Trade Center when it collapsed. Even before his father's death, Oskar had a variety of fears and social difficulties, things that are only enhanced after, as Oskar describes it, "the worst day." Still searching for a foothold two years later, the discovery of a mysterious key in his father’s closet sends Oskar on a quest for the lock it belongs to and, he hopes, some kind of message from his father.

Father-son bonding time.

It’s extremely difficult to portray 9/11 and its aftereffects without coming across as cloying or manipulative. However, director Stephen Daldry (The Reader) and screenwriter Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) have handled the material in a delicate manner, never overplaying the theme. In fact, it could be easily argued that the movie is not really about 9/11, but about a son coming to grips with the loss of his father, no matter how it happened. The scenes that do deal with the day are extremely powerful, but mostly because the filmmakers have taken care to demonstrate the close bond that Oskar and Thomas shared prior to it.

In fact, Oskar’s relationships are at the heart of the film. His struggles with his mother, his reliance on his grandmother, his friendly enmity with their building’s doorman (John Goodman), an unexpected alliance with a man renting a room from his grandmother (Max von Sydow), and the brief visits with a slew of people he meets while on his quest all shape who he is and what he becomes. While not all of these relationships quite work, enough of them hit home to make their inclusion worthwhile.

Oskar plots out his quest.

Horn is quite simply a revelation as Oskar. With no professional acting roles to his credit (he was discovered as a contestant on Kids Jeopardy), he gives a performance that’s equal to or better than any other lead actor in 2011. He convincingly portrays extreme grief -- a tall task for any actor, much less a newbie -- with ease, as well as the other idiosyncrasies required of the character. Hanks is great in a supporting role, making Thomas into a father anyone would love to have. Bullock’s role is a bit trickier, as it doesn’t allow her to delve into her character’s grief as fully as Oskar’s. But the moments she does get still resonate, as do those from other supporting cast members like von Sydow, Viola Davis, and Jeffrey Wright.

The range of emotions emanating from that day are far too many for there to ever be a “definitive” movie about 9/11. But we can be grateful that there are quality filmmakers like Daldry who take the time to explore its many facets, even if none of them can be adequately explained.

For showtimes for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, click here.