Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

[flipp525]

And Max von Sydow absolutely kills. A waste of a nomination? Hardly, and don't be surprised if he wins a la John Mills' largely silent performance in another unfairly lambasted film of forty-one years ago.

When the likes of Corey Stoll (who was, in my opinion, phenomenal in Midnight in Paris) has been left off of this year's roster, I would definitely say that the von Sydow nomination was a sentimental waste.

[Big Magilla]

Yes, Hanks is insufferable now. Watching him and Julia Roberts, who is now also painful to watch, made Larry Crowne. one of the year's most insipid films.

I thought the opening shot of Increidbly Close in which the kid imagines him as floating in the air, falling from the WTC, was in questionable taste considering his character would have died instantly when the building collapsed as he was on the phone when it happened and the kid knew that. One assumes Hanks' character is overcompemnsating for his own father not having been there for him is just too much of a goody two-shoes to be believable and Hanks overplays him to boot. That said, I do not share the consensus opinion that the film sucks. As I said earlier, it is basically a re=imagining of The Wizard Oz and as such, may be in bad taste, but is fascinating in that regard all the same. And Max von Sydow absolutely kills. A waste of a nomination? Hardly, and don't be surprised if he wins a la John Mills' largely silent performance in another unfairly lambasted film of forty-one years ago.

[Reza]

Oh, and Tom Hanks -- who I once hugely enjoyed as a performer -- is actively bad here.

Hanks is insufferable on screen now. What a waste of talent. I think it's those two wretched Oscars that have given him the impression that he has to be serious and important in his films....even in his so called comic parts (as the recent Larry Crowne) he appears to be acting big. Oh for those years of Bosom Buddies and Big where he was a delightful presence on the screen!

[Mister Tee]

Foer is one of those writers whose conceits are fully literary, meaning when you dramatize them they fall apart. A character like Oskar might work on the page (haven't read this book, only Everything is Illuminated), but he's an annoyance onscreen, and his quest doesn't make a whole lot of sense (it doesn't help that it ends as basically a shaggy-dog story). And the Max von Sydow character, as a college professor of mine once put it, might as well be wearing a sweatshirt with an "S" for Significant. He's mute because...well, because it makes the whole thing heavier! (And, sorry to be flip about this, but why does he have to be a Holocaust survivor? 9/11 by itself wasn't succulent enough Oscar bait?) The whole film seems to be a pointless narrative structured around hot-button emotional memories. Oh, and Tom Hanks -- who I once hugely enjoyed as a performer -- is actively bad here.

What a waste of a nomination slot.

[ksrymy]

Not quite sure how I'd rate it - but I liked it a lot more than Clooney and Pitt's over-praised films.

Now this I agree with!!

And this I do not understand in the least. Care to elaborate?

[Reza]

Not quite sure how I'd rate it - but I liked it a lot more than Clooney and Pitt's over-praised films.

Now this I agree with!!

[Big Magilla]

I finally saw the Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

I was initially put off by that opening shot of a falling body and Tom Hanks annoyingly "perfect" father and the film's early scenes which seemed to go nowhere. I was not, however, put off by Thomas Horn's very affective portrayal of a kid with some form of autism. His obsessive actions make a lot of sense if you know anything at all about the affliciton. Nevertheless the film's early scenes are a bit rough. It isnt until Max von Sydow comes on screen that the film takes root.

The film is at heart an update of The Wizard of Oz with Horn and his tambourine substituting for Judy's Dorothy and her dog, Toto; the attack on the WTC subsituting for the tornadao; the key substituting for the wizard; NYC susbstituting for Oz; the men who flew the planes into the buildings substituting for the wicked witches; Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright's characters substituing for the good witch; Sandra Bullock's anguished mother substituting for Auntie Em and von Sydow's non-speaking tag-along character substituing for the talking Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow. Even the Munchkins are represented by the "little people" the kid meets along the way.

You can say all you want about Stephen Daldry, but one thing he is really good at is discovering young actors and expertly directing them in their first screen roles: Jamie Bell in Billy Elliott - David Kross in The Reader (his first film in English anyway) - Thomas Horn in this.

Not quite sure how I'd rate it - but I liked it a lot more than Clooney and Pitt's over-praised films.

[Big Magilla]

If I do I go back to bed until 8 or 9 unless I have an appointment.

[flipp525]

I could be wrong, but it seems that my local multiplex is very stingy with its early bird matineee pricing. It's generally the first showing and only if the first showing is before noon. Ridiculous!

Oh, Big Magilla. Don't you get up at dawn? That's when my grandparents always began rattling around upstairs.

[Damien]

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is ludicrous and dull, not an easy combination to achieve. The main narrative is daft -- having a 9/11 child trying to make a connection with a deceased parent is an intriguing theme and one with endless possibilities, but what the kid in this movie is up to is completely removed from any reasonable concept of reality. And his search is presented not with a whimsical or empathetic conveyance of a child's world view of attempting to cope with an overwhelming emotional -- life affecting, actually -- event but id handled in a dreary straight-forward manner, as if a child's world view/perception was in no way involved.

The film is way overwritten with the pretentious hack Eric Roth providing absurd dialogue and phony characterizations and situations. It doesn't help that there's a dreadful performance at the core of the film -- Thomas Horn's line readings seem literally like exactly that -- a kid reading lines, not expressing them. The character is an obnoxious oddball to begin with and Horn's acting makes him seem even more unappealing - said to say, it's hard to work up much empathy for the kid. Max von Sydow's Man of Silence remains a literary conceit, not a recognizable human, and it's not a very original or clever conceit, and John Goodman's presence is a distraction that serves no purpose. Sandra Bullock's character is strangely absent for much of the proceedings and her big moment towards the end makes no sense. There's also a major narrative goof involving Tom Hanks's phone calls from the Twin Towers, which diminishes the supposed Big Pay-Off. The end result of the boy's quest is shockingly anti-climactic and unsatisfying. The reason that the film didn't show up in critics awards and guild/Globe nominations isn't that not enough people saw it, it's that it's a lousy film. It's hard to believe that a film so manipulative can be so unaffecting.
4/10

[Big Magilla]

I could be wrong, but it seems that my local multiplex is very stingy with its early bird matineee pricing. It's generally the first showing and only if the first showing is before noon. Ridiculous!

[criddic3]

According to Box Office Mojo, the mean ticket price in the U.S. is just under $8.

A lot depends on where you are. Smaller town theaters tend to be lower in price, but they also show less movies than the multiplex. On certain days, however, even the major chains will have a bargain price. For instance, on Tuesdays in some theaters the price is a flat $6 for any showing, Some also designate early shows as matinees, though there are also those that only allow this for the first scheduled time a movie plays. If you go at night on a weekend to a major multiplex, you won't get away with spending less then $10 for a ticket.

[Greg]

According to Box Office Mojo, the mean ticket price in the U.S. is just under $8.

[Damien]

(Having just paid $16.50 for Tintin)

Shit man, is that how expensive it is now to watch a film at cinemas in America?

In New York City, multiplexes charge $13.25. 3-D fins have 4 bucks added to them; IMAX I think adds $6.00. Art houses are in the $11.00 range.

I never buy food at the movies (just as I don't eat at church), but I recently was with my niece and got her a small popcorn and small coke at a Regal cinema -- 11 bucks.

[Sonic Youth]

Stephen Daldry named Director of the Year by Palm Springs fest
‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ takes another step onto the field

Other honorees previously announced for this year's fest include George Clooney, Glenn Close, Michel Hazanavicius, Brad Pitt, Octavia Spencer, Michelle Williams and Gary Oldman.

In other words, they put out an open invitation, Daldry was free that day, so he's being 'feted'.