Extrêmement fort & incroyablement près

This film is about a boy's journey to find the lock which his father's key fits into.

Set in a backdrop of the post September 11th attacks, the story is bound to be touching. Looking through the confusing times through the eyes of a autistic-spectrum child makes "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" even more powerful. The way he steps out of his comfort zone, his bravery and persistence to find the answer is inspiring. It keeps me glued to the screen, hoping a Hollywood ending will occur. Of course, we get catharsis after catharsis of painful emotions. These portrayals are incredibly real, and incredibly touching.

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is an excellent drama that deals with painful wounds, and its journey to healing.

Saw this movie in the theatre and thoroughly enjoyed it.Recently saw it again on the movie channel and enjoyed it even more.The young boy was phenomenal,others were very good as well especially Max Von Sydow of course.Don't understand why people put down this movie, must be just complainers! I'll never forget where I was on 9/11 and can't imagine what it must have been like for New Yorkers.This movie shows many different people of the city in many different ways and I believe was very well done. I know the young boy was not a professional actor and its hard to believe he isn't, hopefully he might pursue the craft but I believe he wasn't that interested. Definitely a must see and probably twice to get everything out of it!

At thirty minutes in I was wondering who would be the first to leave the small audience in the cinema. By the end of this movie I, and the few others, simply sat with our metaphorical mouths agape at the impact of what we had just seen. A slow, meandering, and with hindsight, entirely necessary beginning gives way to a riveting and gripping story. A story which you would expect to bring you to tears (and it will for some) but is ultimately about triumph. It may appear to be a story about 9/11 and such was the enormity of that event that it would be easy to suggest that this is just an excellently acted and well-crafted story about that day. That would be to undersell this movie. 9/11 is just the vehicle which carries the message of how our everyday, minor irritations with other people and our general lives are simply unimportant in comparison to the reality that most people are just trying to do their best in our jobs, our marriages and in our relationships. We are imperfect and the enormity of 9/11 hammered that home. These couple of hours repeats the exercise. But this movie does more than use the day's story in such a simplistic way. Rather, it weaves the tragedy into the story of lives that are already living with sadness and it allows those participants to view their personal tragedies in the context of the much bigger one. To use the "device" of a compulsive child (what a performance!)forces us voyeurs to focus more clearly on the everyday minutiae which both he and we come to see as insignificant. A wonderful experience...this movie will stay with me for the rest of my days.

I found the main character very annoying at times. However, over time, this movie had enough touching moments that felt real and were gagné that in the end it was reasonably enjoyable.

The best parts were the emotionally intense scenes of which there were several. The subject matter automatically lead in that direction. What was important was that they were handled well and weren't too obvious or sappy or preachy, IMO. I don't normally cry during movies and I didn't, but I can see how someone could and there's something healing in that. There doesn't need to be any explanation for a situation for us to learn from it. Simply seeing other people deeply affected by disturbing things can make you feel less alone and give you faith in humanity.

People can argue and say nasty words and yet somehow communicate love at the same time through their body language. That brutal honesty that hurts the most usually comes from a very kind, sensitive place. It's interesting the kind of guilt we're capable of putting upon ourselves. The desperate fear that you're not a good person, that you failed somehow. You can relate to these characters and the way they feel. Death is one of those things that can be scary but which we often completely forget about. It's nice to have a primal emotion or fear brought alive by a movie in the right way.

Now some major weaknesses. The plot is stupidly ridiculous. Much of it is technically possible but doesn't hold up well to inspection. It's too cute and "clever". I hate when characters go out on misguided missions without thinking them through. It's been done. It's far more interesting to have intelligent characters who run into legitimate or unexpected barriers than simply allowing them to forget all logic at the outset. The plot involves arbitrary devices for creating interesting situations rather than letting logical actions by the characters naturally take them somewhere interesting. It's like bad magic where you can see it all a mile away and there are no surprises.

The boy's obnoxious and rude comportement were extreme and distracting at times. He was unlikable for long stretches. I can understand it in the context of him being deeply affected or lost or trying to cope with things, but it was still too much and the movie implied he was like that anyway because there was no contrast with his comportement before the events. Sounds like the book is much better in this regard. But it did affect me. Brought a little something out of me. Which can be rare considering how predictable I find the majority of new movies.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a film that haunts you all day after the closing credits. I just watched it this morning, Sept. 11th, 2012--weeping continually, which is not a typical reaction from me. Powerful stuff.

The story is about a child who lost his father in the World Trade Center attacks on that fateful day in our country's history. It is his journey to reconnect with his father's memory by going on a quest to find the lock that fits the key left mysteriously in a vase in his father's closet. Along the way, this shy and sensitive boy Oskar is forced to meet and interact with a range of citizens, and to hear their stories too.

More importantly, it is about connectedness. It is about realizing that you aren't alone in your pain, and learning how to reach out to others for help and comfort. It is about realizing that your alone-ness is an illusion.

I loved, loved, loved the chemistry of the father and son in the flashback scenes, loved the delightful and unconventional expeditions they embarked upon, and enjoyed coming along with Oskar and The Renter to solve the final mystery of the key. I thought that the child actor playing Oskar was wonderful in this breakout role; he carried the movie quite well, almost singlehandedly-- except for those scenes with Max Von Sydow's silent character, The Renter. Of course Von Sydow stole the show, and totally deserved his Academy nomination. In all, the actors were brilliant and compelling to match the heartfelt script.

Yes, there was a certain amount of emotional manipulation involved in this tearjerker (what else could you expect from a Sandra Bullock production nowadays?). I can overlook that and wholeheartedly recommend EL&IC to anybody as possibly the best "9/11" film to date.