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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close More at IMDbPro »

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288 reviews in total

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228 out of 335 people found the following review useful:
Perfect Portrayal of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder Child, 20 January 2012

Author: Robert-872 from United States

I have read a LOT of reviews from people who seem to know absolutely nothing about children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Thomas Horn did an excellent job portraying one. He was very moving in everything he did! I know he did a great job because I have two children with the disorder and he fit perfectly between their two levels of autism. Does he have big beautiful eyes... sure. Don't knock the kid because he looks good. He was spot on with his acting! This story has you feeling all sorts of emotions and by the end of the movie we had all shed a lot of tears. And the tears were caused by what the child was doing to handle his grief and understand why his dad was taken away from him and NOT because it had anything to do with 9/11. My son had lost his mom and the movie brought back all sorts of emotions because he could relate to the child perfectly. This movie has replaced Billy Elliot on my list of most moving story. Not everyone can enjoy this kind of loving and sophisticated story so it might not be for everyone but if you have a heart and have ever lost a parent, I am sure that you will love this movie! Another moving story brought to us by Stephen Daldry!

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122 out of 174 people found the following review useful:
This movie will stay with me for the rest of my days., 17 February 2012

Author: greg-1260 from United Kingdom

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.

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187 out of 329 people found the following review useful:
WOW - wasn't expecting such an exceptional young star!, 9 December 2011

Author: estherde from Houston, Texas

I had the privilege of being invited to a screening today and was completely blown away by this movie! Forget the big name stars in this - except the extraordinary Viola Davis who is brilliant in whatever she does. This movie totally hinges on young Thomas Horn, whose performance took my breath away. Yes, I teared up at several moments, but the movie does not stoop to the over-wrought sentimentality that a movie like "War Horse" does. Instead, it takes you on an incredible journey and this young actor so embodies the lead, every emotion, every challenge. I think it really honors 9/11 in the same way that "Reign on Me" did. I am thankful I took the time out in the middle of a work day to go to the screening. I hope this movie does well because it sure made my day. Now I really want to read the book!

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112 out of 195 people found the following review useful:
A haunting and lovely tale of a boys journey to keep his father alive in his memory., 28 January 2012

Author: whitx5 from United States

I personally loved this movie, and was shocked to see such negative reviews. I loved the fact that it centered around 9/11, as I think as painful and emotional as that was, we should NEVER forget it. I thought that the acting was superb and the scenery of NYC was wonderful. I loved the message and even though I was emotionally exhausted by the films end, I still felt good after seeing it. I give this film 10 stars and hope to see it receive many awards. I'll be owning it on DVD when its released. The acting by the whole cast, although the boy carried the movie almost single handily, was great, and this movie seriously touched my heart.

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57 out of 99 people found the following review useful:
One of the biggest surprises of 2011!, 8 February 2012

Author: Boba_Fett1138 from Groningen, The Netherlands

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/

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73 out of 135 people found the following review useful:
Touching movie if you can handle a protagonist with autism, 7 January 2012

Author: Tom West from Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of a young boy who is profoundly affected by an Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asperger's or otherwise) who is trying to come to terms with his father's death in the 9/11 disaster.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, finding it incredibly touching. As a parent of a child with an autism-spectrum disorder, I found the portrayal of Oskar, if very different from my own child, utterly believable.

Oskar's attempt to make sense of an event that in the end makes no sense was heart-wrenching, but for me, the movie's most effective aspects where not merely the Oskar's journey, but those brief glimpses of both his mother's grief and all of those he touches on that journey.

I think that a lot of people will find the protagonist difficult. Many attempts of those around him to comfort are utterly lost on him, and his inability to detect the emotional states in others along with his monomaniacal focus on attempting to process his father's death can make him profoundly unlikable for those not familiar with autism (or who don't care). Certainly, this is borne out in other reviews.

In the end, this film touched me more deeply than most I have seen this year - 9/10.

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15 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
To The Point, 7 October 2012

Author: Ashley Saylor from Michigan

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close film will stay with me until the last of my days. Phenomenal, poetic, extraordinary. All performances are beyond excellent, perfectly chosen. I cannot recommend this film enough, words are boundless when talking about this particular film. I am very picky, not a critic but very picky and have tastes in films you could never dream up. If you dislike this film, shame on you, you clearly have no taste or lack it because you're obsessed with mainstream qualities. I am a blunt and to the point kind of gal, so don't be so personal. I am tired of crappy films and when I finally watch a grand one, I will boast like no other. There is something in this film for everyone, everyone. You will cry, if not, you should, it's good for you.

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32 out of 56 people found the following review useful:
Mixed Feelings About This Movie, 26 January 2012

Author: patsworld from United States

This movie is a difficult one to review. At times during the film, you are thinking it's terrible, other times, it's touching, at others, inspiring. There is so much tragedy here and so much that is hopeful. I will say this, when the movie closed and the lights came up, I just sat there, thinking about things I'd seen, things I still wondered about, scenes that were perfect and those that weren't, questions that were answered and those not quite enough. Over all, I'd say I'm glad I watched this one. I can't say it's one I'm going to want to buy. It was interesting that of the four of us who went together to see this picture, all had different parts that affected us the most. For many of us, bringing ourselves to watch anything that had to do with 9/11 is still too painful to really be excited about. It's still too freshly seared into our minds. Maybe always will be. This one, at least, didn't slam the viewer over the head with too many visual details….there were as many as had to be, to present the movie. I think this is one you should see if only to decide for yourself what feelings you are left with. Excellent casting by the way.

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24 out of 41 people found the following review useful:
Although so full of raw emotion, it's hard to feel it, 14 May 2012

Author: Movie_Muse_Reviews from IL, USA

Grief is a process. Psychology books and personal experience will tell you that. Perhaps not all of us experience someone being ripped from our lives in an instant, but the process is always the same. Why then, is it so challenging to watch 9-year-old Oskar (Thomas Horn), whose father (Tom Hanks) dies in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, endure this all-too-familiar pain? It should be moving to see a young albeit peculiar child come to terms with this in his own way.

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" attempts to play powerful cinematic music with extremely sensitive strings. The story is steeped in trauma and mourning, so the obvious danger would likely be creating a film that's too heavy or suffocating, but this story has moments of quirk, sincerity and even adventure. The trouble is that not until the end does the film ever let go of what Oskar calls "the Worst Day"—his code for 9/11. It haunts the entire movie, and while that can certainly be justified, it throws us out of sync with the characters, who all seem to experience the fiercest of emotions when we aren't ready for them.

The biggest problem is Oskar. It has nothing to do with the young Horn's performance, but everything to do with how Oscar winner Eric Roth was forced to adapt him for the screen. I have not read Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, but my guess is given the abundant use of narration in the movie, Oskar tells the story in the first person. Considering we are forced to follow and identify with a 9-year-old with Asperger's and probably some form of autism, understanding and relating to this character is crucial, yet maddeningly difficult.

Understandably through no fault of his own, Oskar treats his mother (Sandra Bullock) poorly, swears at his apartment building doorman (John Goodman), throws temper tantrums, lies and despite his curiosity and adventurous spirit, uses deduction in place of logic. He's a nightmare of a main character, and his constant relapses as the film flashes back to 9/11 butt in every time you start to warm up to him.

Director Stephen Daldry has experience working with troubled boys ("Billy Elliot"), but he doesn't appear to do enough to help us sympathize, which could be the result of roadblocks in the script. Given that Oskar holds secrets even from the audience until close to the end, most of which deal with revisiting 9/11, it's hard to feel bad for him. He's just a strange kid afraid to move on, which isn't exactly revelatory.

Oskar's pursuit of finding what a mysterious key found in his father's closet belongs to is supposed to be the start of an adventure, but one that never really blossoms. The closest it ever gets is the 30 minutes in which Oskar befriends The Renter (Max von Sydow), an old man choosing to be mute that lives with Oskar's grandmother in a nearby building. He accompanies Oskar on his journey and challenges him to overcome his fears, and makes for an interesting compliment to the ever-gabbing child. If you had to nominate "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" for an Academy Award, it would be for von Sydow, so in that sense perhaps he deserves recognition.

All the colorful characters you would expect Oskar to meet as he tries to find every single person with the last name Black living in New York City exist in voice-over snippets. From a quick outside glance, the story would likely be about a child going on an adventure expecting to find a meaningful answer and learning that the journey was the entire point, but it somehow ends up way more convoluted.

"Extremely Loud's" Best Picture nomination is extremely unwarranted. Despite the talent on and behind the camera, the product as a whole is messy and most importantly, unable to connect emotionally with its audience. Certainly some people will connect with a moment or two and really appreciate the film's emotional fearlessness, but anyone versed in Oscar- caliber drama knows this doesn't fit the bill despite all the venerated talent that put this movie on Oscar radars everywhere when it first came together.

Maybe it's that abundant talent that makes the film's shortcomings all the more difficult to bear, but the more you think about it, the more you realize this kind of a perspective on September 11 — from the eyes of such a challenging protagonist — probably doomed it from the start. The craftsmanship, the acting and some of the raw moments in the story make the film nothing to scoff at, but the impact of it all, which is the heart of this kind of drama, doesn't come across as it should.

~Steven C

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29 out of 53 people found the following review useful:
Extremely Annoying and Incredibly Sappy, 7 February 2012

Author: samuraifa451 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Director Stephen Daldry takes what could have been a fantastic idea and ultimately flushes it down the drain in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is a nine-year-old with autistic symptoms who's greatest joy is spending time with his father (Tom Hanks). However, once his father is lost during the 9/11 attacks, Oskar finds a mysterious key inside an envelope with the name Black on it, Oskar sets out on a quest to find the lock it fits. One would think that from here the rest of the film would be all about Oskar's journey and the people he meets along the way but unfortunately it's not. Instead, what the story delivers a poor portrayal of autism and coping through tragedy. Both of these plot devices could have been great if Horn could have delivered on it. The fact that no one in the supporting cast is given anything to do is truly a pity because Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Max Von Sydow were probably the best thing going for this movie. Admittedly, there are a few decent emotional moments and the twist at the end is clever but by that point everything about the film has become so artificial that it is almost impossible to buy into any of it. It may be worth a watch for some, but "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" just ends up coming off as annoying and sappy.

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