It’s that time of year again. The Academy Award nominations have been announced, and the countdown to the 2012 Oscars, airing on ABC Sunday, Feb. 26, has begun.
It’s that time of year again. The Academy Award nominations have been announced, and the countdown to the 2012 Oscars, airing on ABC Sunday, Feb. 26, has begun.
For producers, directors and actors, this means a few weeks of nail-biting, stomach-churning suspense. For me, it means sitting on the couch, with a nearly empty bag of potato chips and an even emptier wallet, weeping at how rich and famous these people are while I am not.
Given that the most celebrated category is the one for Best Picture, I decided to go out and actually watch one of the nominees. Of the nine titles, the film that caught my eye (mostly because it was the only one playing at a time I could afford to go) was Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
The film, released Jan. 20, takes place in New York City, where an 11-year-old child prodigy named Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) lives with his parents (Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock). Oskar and his father go on expeditions together to find the “sixth borough” of New York City.
But then the 9/11 attacks happen, and Oskar loses his father, who was also his best friend. One year later, Oskar finds a key in his father’s belongings and is convinced his dad left a final clue for the expedition. He then goes on a quest through all five of the city’s boroughs in search of the lock that fits the key, in search of answers, in search of his father and, ultimately, in search of closure.
And thus, Daldry’s film tells the story of a grieving boy with Asperger’s syndrome who tries to deal with his loss and eventually move past the grief.
When I first saw the trailer, I won’t lie, I thought it was going to be a simple-minded film made for children to teach them how not to take their parents for granted. I had no intention of seeing it, and frankly, I had no idea the film is based on a 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. I was, therefore, surprised at how much I actually enjoyed the film.
First of all, it is guaranteed that anything made about the 9/11 attacks will be popular because it is an event that comprises hundreds of different stories about hundreds of different people. Moviegoers such as myself want to know these stories. Sept. 11 is one of those events that, when used for narrative purposes, automatically touch people’s hearts. And when you add a child into the mix, well, you have sold this 18-year-old film critic into liking your film.
Extremely Loud is told in a Huckleberry Finn fashion, narrated by young Oskar. His insights prove vastly superior to those of regular 11-year-olds, but given what he has been through, and given that this film is intended for an older audience, the whole conceit works. When Oskar begins to feel paranoia, the sounds of subways, the streets and even the dripping of a faucet are intensified, and the emphatic effect is very effective.
The film impacted me emotionally from the first frame. The opening shots capture, in slow motion, a person falling from the sky as he jumps to his death to escape a burning Trade Tower. Shots of the smoking towers play throughout the film. The sounds of Oskar’s father calling him from inside the building, the images of his mother crying profusely, the sadness of the people that Oskar meets are profoundly touching.
Although there have been many movies, stories and books written about 9/11, the fact that there were thousands of people personally impacted by this devastating event means that the 9/11-related stories will likely never end.
If you like emotional movies with powerful messages, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a good one to see.
And if you like feeling inadequate and unaccomplished, you should watch the Oscars as well.
