In “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is not the average 11-year-old boy. He is inventive, dramatic and brilliant in a way that is not seen in other children his age.
On what he calls “the worst day,” Oskar’s father (Tom Hanks) is killed in World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
The movie switches back and forth between present moment to flashbacks, reliving the attacks and showing how the Schell family copes with their loss. As the movie trailer explains, “This is not a story about 9/11. It’s about every day after.”
A year later, Oskar finds a key that his father had left behind. Intrigued by its meaning, he designs an intricate plan to discover the purpose of the key and its connection to his father. Oskar sets out across the five boroughs in New York, equipped with his tambourine to calm his nerves and his weirdly adorable clothes to keep him warm.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” chronicles Oskar and his encounters with a plethora of New Yorkers - each different and eccentric in their own way, all searching for something themselves. But as Schell says to his son, “If things were easy to find, they wouldn’t be worth finding.”
Horn’s performance as a young boy who tragically loses his father in the 9/11 attacks is nothing short of mesmerizing, realistic and heart-wrenching. Hanks and Sandra Bullock make a loving couple, and Bullock’s portrayal of a heartbroken and helpless wife is incredible. Each actor greatly contributes to the movie’s emotional aspect.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” has shown how films can span across multiple genres. Tears may be shed during the movie’s dramatic scenes, but bursts of laughter will come with others. Still, some parts will leave audiences speechless, pondering their own long-lost friends and wondering why things happen the way they do.
