Pick of the Week: Incredibly Loud & Extremely Close

By Horacio Garcia

Based on a New York Times Bestseller, written by a 5 times Oscar nominated writer (Erick Roth, who won it for Forrest Gump) and directed by Stephen Daldry, the acclaimed director of Billy Elliot and The Reader; Incredibly Loud & Extremely Close seems like the most calculated bet to the Academy Awards this year.

Not only boasted Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in its casting, but also recruited a great cast of secondary performers including Max Von Sydow, John Goodman and specially Viola Davis, fresh from her huge success in The Help.

Incredibly Loud is the story of Oskar Schell, a very neurotic city kid whose father Thomas (Tom Hanks) has devised a series of mini quests in order to get him out of the house. Unfortunately, Thomas is one of the hundreds of people trapped in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In an attempt to keep his father somehow close, Oscar hides his dad final call from his mother Linda (Sandra Bullock) and it seems very likely that he will bury himself inside his room, when he discovers a small key hidden inside a vase in his father’s closet.

Oscar considers the key his father's one last clue to investigate and this secluded subway-fearing youngster embarks on a crazy journey through the City of New York searching for a lock-box belonging to someone named Black.

Incredibly Loud, both the novel and the film, have been called "9/11 exploitation" for using the tragedy as the background for a personal melodrama in an attempt to squeeze some extra tears. The truth is that the movie is not very teary. Director Daldry maintains a very European distance from the story and in several of its most dramatic moments the actors barely speak at all.

The only reason this kind of script works is thanks to such impressive actors like Max Von Sydow, who  elevates the solemnity of any scene even without uttering a single word. The minimalist music score nicely underlines the intention.

Thomas Horn, the young actor who plays Oscar, was a contestant in the Jeopardy for Teens Week (he made over 30 K…), so this brainy character obsessed with finding clues to his father's secret is perfect for him. Thomas is brilliantly directed but more than acting coaching is needed to be like the type of person who happily tells us that Asperger Syndrome Tests on him "were inconclusive".

Maybe a little out of place for a Christmas opening in which is going to compete with such unabashed melodramas as War Horse, and despite the star-studded cast, Incredibly Loud is at the end a little quiet movie, very well performed and sufficiently entertaining. It is also a little sadder than the rest of movies we are used to on Christmas so you might need your hankie. As I said before, it was also calculated for an Oscar run so I think we'll be hearing about this one till February.

Tags blogger: Horacio Garcia, Max Von Sydow, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn Incredibly Loud & Extremely Close, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis