Thomas Schell: Tom Hanks
Linda Schell: Sandra Bullock
The Renter: Max von Sydow
Oskar’s Grandmother: Zoe Caldwell
Abby Black: Viola Davis
William Black: Jeffrey Wright
Stan the Doorman: John Goodman
Warner Bros. Pictures
presents a film directed by Stephen Daldry. Written by Eric Roth. Based on the
book by Jonathan Safran Foer. Running time: 129 min. Rated PG-13 (for emotional
thematic material, some disturbing images, and language).
I remember exactly where I
was when I first learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September
11, 2001. I wasn’t a resident of New York City, although I had been just four
years prior to that date. I remember the 1993 attack. I knew instantly it was a
terrorist attack, although the news media was reluctant to report it as such in
those first few minutes. I cannot imagine what it must’ve been like to be in
the city that day.
The new movie “Extremely
Loud & Incredibly Close” tries to give us a story of a 9/11 survival
family. The movie mostly takes place about a year after “the worst day,” and is
told through the eyes of a boy who lost his father in the first tower collapse.
Through flashbacks we get to know the boy’s father, Thomas Schell. Tom Hanks (“Larry
Crowne”) plays Oskar’s father as an incredibly patient man whose death would be
a loss to all the lives he touched.
Oskar is admirably played by
first time actor Thomas Horn, who was first seen by the film’s producers on an
episode of “Jeopardy!”. Oskar may be autistic. He says the tests were
inconclusive. Oskar used to play many games of discovery with his father. Since
the attacks, Oskar has been lost. Unable to connect with his mother, he
searches for a way to continue to connect with his father.
Sandra Bullock’s role as the
mother, Linda, is baffling. She’s non-existent in Oskar’s life and in the
screenplay for most of the movie. We get to see her for a few reaction shots
and one flashback to the day of the attacks, but she’s strangely absent from
all the events going on in her son’s life. Bullock (“The Blind Side”) does the
best she can with the small moments she’s given, but I can’t imagine what made
her decide this would be a good follow up to her Oscar win. When she reveals
where she has been while her troubled son has been trying to cope, we realize
all logic has been thrown out the window for her character. How she could think
her actions would allow her to connect with her son better than her actual
presence is inexplicable.
The boy has other family. His
grandmother lives in the high rise next to his, and he communicates with her
through walkie-talkie. She has a mysterious boarder, a man who doesn’t speak—an
Oscar nominated performance by the great Max von Sydow (“Minority Report”).
It’s no surprise that his secret will be an important plot point. The
surprising thing is that the filmmakers seem to think his secret will come as a
surprise to the audience. His identity is rather obvious from just about the
second we learn of his existence.
Oskar finds a key in his
father’s closet and thinks it might be something his dad left for him to
discover. The key has the name “Black” labeled on the envelope in which the boy
finds it. How the boy is supposed to know this is a name and not a color or
some other reference, I’m not sure. So, he sets out to meet every person named
Black in the Five Burroughs of New York and see if any of them has a lock the
key fits. Uh-huh. An Oscar nominee for her role in “The Help”, Viola Davis
provides one of the stronger characters as the first person Oskar seeks out.
On top of this, Oskar’s undiagnosed
condition makes him afraid of just about every element of New York life, so he
won’t use any public transportation. He will walk to every address. Uh-huh.
The filmmakers make it
easier on themselves by not defining Oskar’s condition, although Aspergers is
mentioned, perhaps because it seems to be the current ‘in’ disease for socially
disconnected highly intelligent children. Oskar’s autism is convenient. It
allows him the obsessive/compulsive nature to undertake such a search, but it
never really gets out of control to the point where he can’t function, which is
unrealistic. It helps them toward their point that we all as humans want to make
sense of tragedies like 9/11. I’m not sure exploiting a legitimate disorder
like Aspergers is the right way to go about doing this, however.
Director Stephen Daldry
(“Billy Elliot”) creates some wonderful imagery in Oskar’s search for meaning.
The images of people falling from the skyscrapers on that fateful day obviously
had a profound effect on Daldry, as it did on all of us. He tastefully
references this image at several different points throughout the movie, forcing
his characters and the audience to confront one of the more frightening aspects
of those nightmarish events.
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