Close Enough

by Thomas Willett

3:00pm PST, February 1, 2012

When the Academy Award nominations were announced this year, no film received more confused responses than director Stephen Daldry’s 9-11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer. Maybe it was the dark subject matter that turned some off. However, word has gotten out and it is the most loathed best picture nominee. How can this be?

It can attribute to the opening sequence in which Oskar Schell (newcomer Thomas Horn), through voice over, discusses making mausoleums to visit corpses. From there, everything that this movie stands for is explained while creating discomfort. Despite the backdrop being 9-11, this is mostly the story of an adolescent coping with death and overcoming fears. Like a majority of children, he doesn’t take it well and often rails against his mother (Sandra Bullock) in hopes of finding convenient answers. When he finds a key in his father’s (Tom Hanks) closet, he begins a journey to discover what it means.

What’s most impressive about this story is not that it’s a commentary about 9-11, but that it’s an honest story about feeling abandoned. It’s rare that a young protagonist manages to get into some deep, emotional territory without a sense of dread. It is not upbeat, but the focused, ambitious nature of Oskar leads to a sense of hope. While he suffers from a loss of faith and fear of new things, it’s the sense that the answers are always nearby that helps to keep this story afloat. It also helps that Horn manages to convey emotion that paints him as sometimes sympathetic and sometimes annoying. Either way, his dedication helps to raise this story to new, ambitious levels.

It also helps that director Stephen Daldry is not an impressive director. There is very little artistic merit to distract from the story. By just allowing the characters to interact, it brings out humanity that eventually shows the connective nature of New York civilians. Even the secondary characters that are often only given one line leave an impression. It also helps that the story progressively reveals Oskar’s motives through flashbacks. It helps to pack a punch and eventually helps the conclusion to come to a fulfilling fruition.

Another standout for the film is a character named The Renter (Max von Sydow), who became mute due to World War II trauma. His only communication is through a notepad that helps him and Oskar peruse the city. Despite never once speaking, he provides a powerful release for Oskar’s character and helps the story to progress into interesting territory with a surrogate father-son dynamic. Most of his acting is done through subtle, facial reactions as Oskar opens up about the events. By the time a tape recorder gets involved, it packs a large emotional punch, leaving The Renter’s only defense to be his notepad. The relationship is bittersweet, but one that contributes to what makes this film good.

While this can be seen as playing off the audience’s recollection of 9-11, its emotional charge is subjective. However, for those that aren’t distracted by this, it is a fitting story about loss and how tragedy can unite everyone. If cinema could be judged on how well it polarizes its audience, then Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is one of the greatest examples in recent years. It may not be the best film to do this, but it succeeds in quickly eliciting specific emotions with no middle ground.

It manages to also succeed in being a relevant movie that is one of the first mainstream 9-11 stories to feature a young narrator. There is an often ignored generation that had to face these fears and to finally see them represented is a relief. This may never become as loved as United 93, but it’s not trying to do that. It just wants to tell a story about a specific demographic. It does so with honesty and hope without ever creating a false note.

It is doubtful that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will win at the Academy Awards, but it is an achievement in helping to coax audiences into accepting cinema about the touchy subject. It doesn’t explain why 9-11 was bad, but how to overcome the aftermath. It manages to be uplifting while never being convenient. With fantastic performances from Thomas Horn and Max von Sydow, it’s possible that this film can transcend time and pave the way for better, more honest pictures. It may not succeed at every turn, but just like the troubled protagonist, it’s hard for things to be that way. It may be overwrought with emotion, but it’s a powerful story and one that feels worth telling.