Directed by Stephen Daldry
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477302/

If things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding. 


Oskar (Thomas Horn) who is still coming out of the death of his father during 9/11. He finds a hidden key in his father's room, and then begins the adventure of his life to find the purpose of the key. He has to go through various obstacles, one beng his mother whom he doesn't trust, other his own autistic health making him incapable to have social interactions with strangers.

I loved Stephen's last film 'The Reader', but this time around I was touch dissappointed by his direction. The performances of Thomas Horn playing the small kid and Tom Hanks, the motivating father of Oskar were totally spot on. The relationship between Oskar and his mother (Sandra Bullock) gets very un-identifable. While there are some scenes where Oskar's behavior was questionable, getting too loud.

The relationship Oskar shares with a stranger (living in a apartment next to his grandmom) is one of the most engaging part of the film. Two scenes where Oskar narrates the happenings of his adventure, once direct to us and once to the stranger with all the montages, and loud background score making it as 'Extremely loud' as possible, were the best thought of by Stephen. Also, I liked all the meetings Oskar has with 'Black'. And the use of the voice mail messages at seperate intervals to generate the emotional impact.

If only the way Stephen films the adventure part of Oskar (minus when he meets Black), was different and impactfuly, then the emotional connect with the film would had increased. Because everytime Oskar would meet a certain Black, and then return back ponding over the meeting.. it won't work as a viewer.

Thomas Horn was good in his performance, though for me Paul Klementowicz was the show stealer. He removes some of the fears young mind of Oskar has, plus the train sequence and the bridge were exciting.

Sandra Bullock suffers from inadequate direction, though her character sketch is pretty confusing too. Tom Hanks is pretty good in small role.


Overall, 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' is a decent film, but I expected much more from it. The director does justice to the title though, wish he didn't took 'Extremely Loud' part so seriously.