Soap opera prevails in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” a mawkish tearjerker. The top actors take a back seat to unknown novice, young Thomas Horn. Eleven-year-old, possibly autistic, Oskar Schell (Horn) suffers a grievous loss when his loving dad Thomas (Tom Hanks) dies in the World Trade Center attack. After the embittered boy finds a key in his father’s belongings, he sets out to find the lock it fits, believing it’s a way to reconnect.
Director Stephen Daldry’s screen adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel is maudlin and cloyingly sentimental. Tom Hanks is short-changed appearing only in flashbacks, likewise Sandra Bullock, moving but brief as the grieving widow. Unfortunately, Horn’s Oskar is more irritating than sympathetic in emotion-ridden scenes with Bullock. In an intricate supporting role, Max Von Sydow fares better as an enigmatic character that is speechless, communicating with gestures and notes.
Image Source: Collider
