Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

Rating: 50%
Now the day when they announced the nominations for the Oscars, I already planned to see The Artist to get that movie out of the way in terms of having one less best picture nominee to see before the Oscars. But like everyone else, I was surprised and a little enraged that while Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Ides of March weren't nominated, this film was. So I decided to watch this as well as The Artist that day and while that was good in terms of getting closer to have seen almost all of the nominees, it doesn't change the fact that this film has no right in heck to be there.


Plot: Oskar Shell is the son of Thomas and Linda Shell who possibly has Asperger's Syndrome. Thomas and Oskar play as scavenger hunt that has to do with trying to find this mysterious place in New York. But then Thomas died during the attacks of 9/11 were he left 6 messages on the answering machine before the towers fell which Oskar hides from his mother. A year later, Oskar finds a vase in Thomas' closet and inside, he finds an envelope with a key inside. The envelope only has one word; "Black" so he goes on an expedition throughout New York for every person whose last name is Black and tries to find out how they are connected to his father.

In a way you can appreciate what this movie has to offer, but at the same time you can't. One one hand, it sounds like a very interesting story, with some characters to appreciate. But at the same time it's confusing, not very satisfying, and it altogether seems like the movie is only nominated just because it involves 9/11 and it has Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Plus, one point a friend of mine told me that he heard that this movie was roughly just Hugo only it's post-9/11 for some family, and I have to agree with that. The story is still roughly interesting, but the fact that it's nominated for roughly the same plot as one if its fellow nominees...not a good thing. Anyway, it's confusing because for some people, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense because the whole investigation about the name Black turns out to be a totally different story line than what the story that movie started before Thomas dies at 9/11. And * WARNING SPOILER * even though they do get back to the first story line at the end, in one way it was good for the character considering his personality Asperger's or no, but at the same time it is really an empty happy ending for the audience. Actually, both stories are really empty because we never fine out what the key was for *END OF SPOILER*

Acting/Characters:
Thomas Horn/Oskar Schell: Like the film itself, I have mixed feeling for how Horn did with this character. Personally, I do take an interest in performances that involve a character that is Autistic, has a form of Autism or is believed to be either one. And I saw a whole lot of proof that I believe the character does have Asperger's. However, they went so far as to put in how annoying Autistics can be mostly through just being plain stubborn. I'm not saying that to insult anyone, I'm saying that out of fact and experience. Sometimes going that far can be a good thing in cases like Abed in Community, but this particular boy with Asperger's has been found to have gone to far as to be hated by a lot of the audience. I'm mostly saying that while I can put up with it due to my experience, in general people may not be patient for a particular case like Oskar. But all around, I thought the acting was very well done.
Sandra Bullock/Linda Schell: She did an excellent job...then again she is Sandra Bullock.


Music: Music was nice. I think it worked for what was happening in the film.

Editing: Editing was good. I did like how there would be times where they would go back to focusing what happened in 9/11.

And that's my review for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It's an okay film with a few nice ideas, but it splits into two different stories that don't really satisfy you. All around, it really has no right to be nominated for Best Picture.