Molto forte, incredibilmente vicino

Extremely loud and incredibly close. Is a hard movie to watch. And not for the reasons you might think. As the parent of a autistic child. I found Thomas Horn's performance almost uncannily like my son's. The movie has a simple plot. Oskar lost his father in 9/11. He was incredibly devoted to his father. His Father Tom always found things for him to do that got him involved in one way or the other in the real world. His mother wonderfully played by Sandra Bullock stands at the sidelines and let's the father and son Bond. Tom creates a searching game. He gives Oskar a mission and provided the clues. After his father dies. Oskar finds a key in a blue vase,in his father's closet. He takes this to mean it's a quest from his Dad. Struggling with his loss he goes on this quest to find his Dad. What he finds and what he experiences will change his life and his mother's life forever. As well as the people he meets on his quest. Tom Hanks has basically a extended cameo but he turns in a startling job. Hanks does a emotional job that is refreshing and vibrant. As Tom Schell he wants his son to transcend the boundaries of his aspberger's. He want's Oskar to learn how to function in the real world by interacting with people. As a parent of a child with Aspberger's this movie was so hard to watch at times. Simply because I saw my own son reflected in the movie. I enjoyed this movie because it felt so true to life for me. Worth watching if you like this kind of story.

This seems to be really one of those cases of you'll either love this movie or completely, totally hate it. I personally really wasn't expecting much from this movie and knew very little about it as well but I was completely surprised and wowed by it. It's a really warm, heartfelt movie, filled with both adventure and drama.

Things could had so easily turned cheap and sappy in this movie but it really didn't. Instead the movie at all times felt like a real warm and honest one, with some great storytelling in it and no, I'm normally absolutely not a fan of Stephen Daldry's movies and directing approach. What I absolutely loved about this movie is that it's being told almost entirely from the eyes of a child, who has lost his father and is trying to cope with it by going on, what he thinks, is the one last adventure through the city of New York, that his father had planned for him.

Really, over the years we have had many adventure movies of course but how many of them successfully combined it with some true heartfelt drama in it as well. On that level this movie is already really an unique and original one, that works on so many different levels.

It seems that the only reason why some people have some major problems with this movie and are even offended by it is because its drama involves 9/11 and uses its events to emote its audience. And of course while they have a point about this, I didn't feel at all as if it was using it in a cheap or gimmicky way, to easily get emotions from its audience. The only one thing I will complain about was that it kept referencing a bit too much at it at times. Really, one mention of it could had sufficed but the movie instead kept using some flashbacks at times, which were still powerful but it got done 2 or 3 times too many in my opinion. Besides, there were times I even got confused by it and didn't always intermediately noticed that it was a flashback I was watching.

I was absolutely loving all of the characters in this movie and also really liked it that the movie had the guts to portray a little kid as a little kid for a change and not one with some fake emotions, feelings and thoughts. Everybody was a kid once, some much longer ago than others but I do believe everybody should be able to identify in one way or another with its main character, played by the young Thomas Horn, who made his acting debut with this movie. But the same more or less goes for all of the other characters as well, who got very well written and got played by some well known and great actors. This movie probably features both Tom Hanks' and Sandra Bullock's best performance of the past years and Max von Sydow, who never says a word in this movie, even got nominated for an Oscar for his role in this movie.

Really, this is one of the best 2011 movies I have seen and it also definitely ranks among my favorite ones as well.

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This was a very good movie. Its moving and raw at times, a different sort of 911 story, from the view of a child losing a father. On that level it was relatable for me and at times I found it painful to watch the 9 year old boys grief, anger and confusion.

Sandra Bullock is excellent as his mother, watching him from afar as her son searches NY city for the lock matching a mysterious key that once belonged to his father who was killed in the World Trade Center. Thomas Horn does an incredible job as 'Oskar', what a exhausting role for him. He suffers from an (undisclosed) mental illness and his freak out scenes are super well done, intense. I also enjoyed Max von Sydow. Tom Hanks' role is small here, mostly shown through flashbacks.

Ultimately the story will grip your heart, its about healing and how not everything in life can be explained. I think I probably appreciated this movie more because I had read the book first though. This must have been a hard translation to make and I think they did a good job. I liked the changes especially in regards to the mother being more aware. 4/12/15

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.

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.