REVIEW: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Experiencing a loss within a family is heartbreaking. The sudden void that the person leaves behind, whether it's sudden or expected, is extremely hard to fill. Memories and happier thoughts usually creep in after a while, but that gut-wrenching feeling of when they have first gone is incredibly hard.

On September 11th 2001, the whole world watched as thousands of people left this world behind. I remember the day vividly myself. While I wasn't directly affected by what was happening in New York, I remember being glued to the television and not really wanting to believe what I was seeing. When I look back on it now, I just can't imagine how difficult it was for thousands of families to watch their loved ones last moments being broadcast across the globe.

The film, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a film that uses the 9/11 attacks as the basis of it's storyline. The film itself follows the young Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) who looses his father, Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attacks. The story is then picked up a year later, when enough time has passed to start looking back fondly at the life of someone who has passed away. However, Oskar suffers from Asperges syndrome, which means his ability to empathise with others is very limited and his relationship with his Mother, Linda Schell (Sandra Bullock) is strained.

Oskar finds a key, left in an envelope labelled "Black", and believes that his Father left it behind for him to solve a puzzle. What follows is Oskar's trip across New York looking for anyone with the surname Black to help him solve the mystery of the key and find out what it unlocks.

I must admit, I struggled with parts of this film. I wondered what was the massive emphasis on the key for because whatever the outcome of it, it was built up so much that I couldn't help feel it would be a disappointment when we found out what it did unlock. Unfortunately, I was correct in this assumption.

Without meaning to give anything away, when we were told what the key unlocked, I felt like I had wasted my time that I invested in the film and was dangerously close to being disappointed.

Looking back on it now though, the key was only a metaphor. It wasn't really the main issue of the film, but was a symbol for all the difficulties that Oskar had to 'unlock' after the death of his Father... (check me out with the deep meaning stuff!!) The only problem was, that the film spends a good hour of it's running time solely dedicated to Oskar finding out what the key was for. I was much more interested in the scenes between Oskar and his Mother (and Grandmother), as they were much more emotional than Oskar going on his journey across New York. I actually found myself waiting for Sandra Bullock to be back on the screen, as I felt more invested in the struggling relationship between Oskar and his Mother than some key.

I have read some complaints online that Oskar comes across as an unlikeable character (at one point he tells his Mother that he wishes it was her that was in the World Trade Centre rather than his Father). While I can understand why people thought this, I think my experience of looking after children with varying degrees of ASD and Asperges has helped me understand the character a bit more.

It usually means that they say exactly what's on their mind without thinking to hold it back. While one of us may of had this thought in the deep depths of our minds, we would have the common sense to hold it back. Oskar struggles with the noises of trains passing by, the car horns in New York City, the people talking and others shouting on the street around him, without having to also think what he has to say as well.

Like I said, I didn't found his character unlikeable, but confused and angry at the death of his Father. You may think otherwise.

A final point I wanted to make was that the film can be a bit predictable sometimes. I kind of guessed what part the character of "The Renter" (Max von Sydow) would play almost as soon as he was introduced. The point of the key was also a bit of a moot point, considering that any reason they could think of what it was for would render it a disappointment - so they went in the complete opposite direction with it. A final point is that some things just seemed to conveniently happen. The most obvious one of these is when Oskar decides to walk past his Father's favourite swing towards the end of the film and find a touching note that he has left behind...

Overall, I wasn't completely disappointed with the film. In fact, the scenes between Oskar and his Mother I found more emotional than the whole of the weepy film, The Vow. It's just a shame that the story was so devoted to the pointless activity of Oskar finding out the point of the key and so it missed the mark on some key emotional scenes between character's relationships.

*** / *****