Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' is the feature film adaptation of the same named 2005 Jonathan Safran Foer novel about a (presumably autistic though the word is never used in the movie) boy dealing with the death of his father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I could never fully warm to Thomas Horn's performance as the lead, or its somewhat cutsey premises merging with the 9/11 tragedy, I had a similar problem with the film version of Foer's first novel 'Everything is Illuminated' which is about quirky things that happen to a character on his way to visit the site of a massacre of Jews in Poland (I have read neither book, perhaps these things work better on the page). 

Our lead characters name is Oskar and he is surrounded by Academy Awards winners and nominees, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock are his parents, and he befriends Viola Davis as well as Max von Sydow whose wordless performance is the films highlight. A year after his father's death Oskar finds among his dad's things a key in an envelope with the name 'Black' written on it, he takes it upon himself to track down and visit every person with the last name of Black living in the five boroughs, which makes for a colorful assortment of characters, who work to varying degrees. There are a handful of really well done scenes in this but too much of it didn't taste right, schlocky, manipulative, or just a little off. There is a late in the movie narrative twist that was a little much for me.

A mixed bag this movie holds the distinction of being the best picture Oscar nominee with the lowest Rotten Tomato Score, 46% now though I think its was 52% when it got the nod. This movie did remind me that I hope Jeffrey Wright gets an Oscar nod himself at some point, his is perhaps the subtlest performance in an at times overwrought picture. Wright and von Sydow get this film an extra half star. **1/2