Director: Stephen Daldry
Cast: Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Zoe Caldwell, Max von Sydow, John Goodman, Dennis Hearn, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright.
Three stars (out of five)
Rating: (PG)
They smirk and ask "Too soon?", which lets the show go on. It is a pity that other art forms cannot use this helpful formula. When Jonathan Safran Foer put out a novel in 2005 about a young boy struggling to come to terms with losing his dad in 9/11 many believed that it was too soon.
That novel has become Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Rialto) and the director Stephen Daldry wanted it to come out on the 10th anniversary but that would have been too soon.
For some people another 10 years would still be too soon. For the rest of us it is not so much that Safran Foer used a nation's calamity as a handy plot device: it is that he felt he had to get so cute with it. The emotion of 9/11, of any disaster, is all to easy too grasp. Making your protagonist someone on the autism spectrum and giving him a quest just feels increasingly mannered and distancing. Oskar (Thomas Horn) finds a key in his dad's wardrobe and he searches New York trying to find the lock the key belongs to, thinking that this will keep him close to his dead dad. Whether you want to go on that journey, depends on whether you find that touching or trite.
Best thing: Max von Sydow, who has the courage and skill to look into the camera and act at it.
Worst thing: Osker never becomes a real boy, instead he is merely a collection of ticks that assist the storyline.
See it with: A nice comforting peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
- By Christine Powley
