It’s been ten long years since the tragedy of September 11, but the memory of that horrible day hasn’t depleted from our minds one bit. In the days following the attacks, there was already that cynical thought entering our heads: How many years (or months) will it take for Hollywood to start using September 11 as a dramatic device in its films? We didn’t have to wait too long for the first major movie about 9/11, but it turned out to be not just the best film of 2006 but surely the best film that will ever be made about the infamous day—of course, that film is Paul Greengrass’s tense and cathartic United 93. The same year’s World Trade Center was not as successful, however, and the other films made about the tragedy since United 93 have not been very successful. 2007’s Reign Over Me didn’t leave much of a mark, and last year the Robert Pattinson movie Remember Me used the attacks as a cheap twist ending.
Thomas Horn Gives a Mostly Annoying Performance, in His Film Debut
And now we have Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, based on the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, and it’s the first Hollywood movie of such staggering powerhouse talent—Oscar nominated and winning director, producer, actors—that uses the events of September 11 not as its focus but more as its backdrop, with the film’s main storyline dealing with a child’s emotional journey after his father dies in one of the towers. But this highly anticipated movie, one of the very last to be released in 2011 for Academy Award consideration, has to go down as one of the biggest disappointments of the year. The film looks great, sounds great, has a few fleeting moments of truth and emotion, but ultimately comes up shallow, overly whimsical, and hokey.
One of the main flaws of the film is the grating performance by its star—Thomas Horn, in his film debut—who is in almost every scene and whose personality and voice would have been too much to take in a supporting role. It’s understood that he’s an unusual kid from the get-go, but the character’s downfall is that he’s not that likable either. When he stares his mother in the face and says, “I wish it had been you in the tower,” not once, but twice, it’s hard to really feel much sympathy for the guy for the remainder of the movie.
Sandra Bullock Appears in Just Two Major Scenes; Tom Hanks is in the Movie Even Less
Featured prominently above the title on all the posters are the names Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, but you’re not going to find them often in this movie. Hanks is in the movie so little that we’re unable to invest ourselves in the kid’s quest, in the father’s sudden demise. He shows up mostly in flashbacks, and he doesn’t really create a character—we just see Tom Hanks playing the world’s wackiest dad. Sandra Bullock fares better here, as she at least gets two great scenes, probably the best two in the entire movie. A moment halfway through the movie where Sandra loses her composure in front of her kid brings to mind Sandra’s terrific jaw-dropping early scene in Crash. But even she’s in the film so little that it’s hard for her to create a full-fledged character.
Other actors are cluttered throughout the movie, the most effective one being Viola Davis, who is way under-used and who provides the most honest moments in the two-hour-plus film. Jeffrey Wright is featured at the end in an extremely emotional scene that had many in the theatre in tears, but it preys on our memories of September 11 to such a monumental degree that it’s borderline criminal. John Goodman shows up for about ninety seconds of screen-time. And then there’s Max Von Sydow, who had early Oscar buzz for his performance here, but who ultimately gets saddled with a ho-hum character that takes up way too much screen-time in the already overlong movie.
The Film Has its Merits But is Ultimately a Major Disappointment
Director Stephen Daldry could do no wrong before Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close—Billy Elliot and The Reader are particularly fine films—but this fourth outing for him as a director unfortunately misses the mark. A movie like this, taking the events of 9/11 and using it prominently throughout its dramatic structure, needed to be amazing for it to work, but it’s not. The kid is weak, Sandra and Tom are underutilized, and the journey taken, involving a found key and the search for its lock, never finds the right tone. It’s not a complete waste of time—the cinematography by Chris Menges is gorgeous, and the music by the great Alexandre Desplat is certainly haunting. But the film just ultimately rings hollow.
