Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
2011 · Directed by Stephen Daldry
Original language: English
- drama
The story
A year after his father's death, Oskar, a troubled young boy, discovers a mysterious key he believes was left for him by his father and embarks on a scavenger hunt to find the matching lock.
What it’s like
Warm, restless and frequently tender, with a grief that keeps catching on small things. Much of the film is handheld and close on a boy's face, with bright, slightly washed-out New York daylight through subway tunnels, cramped apartment windows and the wide grey streets of the city, and then abrupt shifts into flashback sequences in shadowed, muted tones and the glaring blue of a burning morning. Sound does a lot of work: a skittering tambourine-like rhythm, a plaintive piano score, and the unnerving hush of a city that remembers what it lost. Pacing is episodic and hopeful rather than brisk, with long walking montages and quiet kitchen-table exchanges between a grieving child and the people around him. Its emotional register sits between wistful and raw, and its central arc follows a withdrawn, anxious boy slowly learning to let people into his solitude. Intensity is moderate: some sudden loud noises and frightening moments, a few scenes of intense distress and one brief, stark depiction of a falling figure, but no gore and no sexual content. It suits a rainy Sunday or a quiet evening with a box of tissues, and is best for viewers who want an emotionally sincere, gently melancholic story about loss and connection.
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