Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Posted by No Frame of Reference on February 20, 2012 · 1 Comment 

The final film in the field of nominations for best picture in the 2012 Oscar’s is finally on cinema screens, and as luck would have it, this final one has been met with bewilderment about how it is highly regarded. That film is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, adapted from the book of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, directed by Stephen Doldry and adapted by Eric Roth. In this Oscar nominated feature we follow, nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, pacifist and sufferer of Asperger’s syndrome, Oskar Schell as he searches New York City for the lock which fits a mysterious key left by his father, who died in the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001, or as young Oscar labels it, the worst day.

The big question hanging over Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is whether its dissenters or the academy who awarding this best a picture nomination, are on the right side of the fence? Before answering that question, the worthiness of this film needs to be brought to attention. By using the word worthiness this is drawing attention to extremely loud… as a post-9/11 emotional piece starring academy favourites and box-tickers Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks as Oskar’s parents Thomas and Linda.

That box-ticking quality of the casting is carried forth through every area of the film with the emotional heartbeat drawing focus. Now to say that there is something wrong with a film evoking an emotional response is the understatement, however when it is done with such a lack of subtlety its success is drawn into question. War Horse drew complaints from yours truly for its lack of subtlety on this front, extremely loud blows it out of the water if that is possible. The emotional manipulation on display is heavy-handed and can be noticed a mile off, such tactics are deceitful, horribly so.

Horrible, there’s an apt word to describe this adaptation, from its deeply cynical roots to certain characters that are nothing less than hateful. Who could be deserving of such a label? Well, it’s the kid at the centre of this tapestry of poor taste, Oskar played with unruly precociousness by Thomas Horn. The young actor’s performance is fine, it’s the character he is playing who is the problem. Whether or not he has Asperger’s it doesn’t change that he is a hugely unsympathetic character. This adventure he is going on to find the ‘sixth New York borough’ stretches each and every corner of the massive city and the people who he comes across bend over backwards to accommodate him. Is he grateful, does he grow as a character thanks to these interactions? No, he treats everybody with a total lack of decency and respect.

This would be more tolerable if the film wasn’t in such poor taste. Other film makers have used the cataclysmic tragedy that happened on ‘the worst day’ to frame interesting stories about growth, love and other qualities intrinsic to the human experience. Here it is the framing tool for a film with no respect for any people who suffered on that day, there’s even a flip book of the infamous man who jumped from the twin towers on that fateful day. That trivialization of a tragedy is indefensible, adding to that a one-dimensional story with unwieldy twists that only exist to get the audience emotional in the most transparent way possible.

The talent involved is bemusing, the director previously helmed The Reader, the scriptwriter previously wrote Michael Mann’s The Insider, yet here they are with this project. The cinematographer too, who is responsible for making the film even half way bearable. That sentiment is rebounded onto the cast; the performances which all the adults give deserve to be in a far better film than this. Extremely Loud is undeserving of its cast, whether its Viola Davis or Max Von Sydow. Von Sydow is excellent as a mute old man, who has been nominated for best supporting actor in what is possibly one of his worst films.

This coming of age story might be targeted more towards children than it is towards adults, but that doesn’t make it better that makes it worse. There’s nothing more to be said beyond the film being an assault on decency masked under the visage of a safe prestige picture.

Filed under Megaplex · Tagged with Asperger syndrome, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer, Max Von Sydow, New York City, Oscars, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis