Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) is about a boy who lost his father on 11 September. Oskar finds a key in his father's wardrobe, inside an envelope marked Black. He sets out to visit everyone in New York with that surname to find the lock it opens. The source is Jonathan Safran Foer's 2005 novel. The book's typographic games and page design do not survive the adaptation; what is left is a straightforward quest. Stephen Daldry directed. Tom Hanks plays the father, Sandra Bullock the mother, and Max von Sydow an elderly lodger who does not speak. Von Sydow says nothing for the whole film, communicating with YES and NO written on his palms, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Thomas Horn, who plays Oskar, had no acting background; he had been spotted on a quiz show and called in to audition. What got discussed most was its Best Picture nomination. Reviews were largely negative and the nomination was treated as one of the most contested Academy decisions of that year, the main objection being that it uses 11 September as an emotional instrument. It runs 129 minutes. Good for: films about grief, New York, and Max von Sydow. Less good for: the film pushes for feeling directly and does so often. Oskar is deliberately written to be exhausting and many viewers cannot attach to him. The explanation at the end shrinks the mystery the story built.