EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE

The 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer was a compelling and excellent read. The movie version is immaculately filmed, directed and graced with fine, sensitive performances. Thomas Horn is a genius in depicting “Oscar Schell”, an 11- year -old gifted loner, trying to cope with the loss of his father (Tom Hanks). Then why was I bored, uninterested and capable of cauterizing my emotional response?

This question has been sloshing around, consciously and unconsciously for a number of days, searching for a viable answer; sadly, lightening has steered from my path, an epiphany has not been forthcoming, resulting in puzzling and mediocre conclusions and deductions.

Maybe it is because 9/11 has exacted the ultimate toll and all that remains is scar tissue; throughout the world it is hard to find someone who does not know someone, or knows someone who knows someone who was lost on “the worst day” ever visited upon the United States. Perhaps it is Warholian; how many times can one watch two mighty Titans of architecture be torpedoed and topple, disintegrate in minutes; serialization breeds anaesthetization.  Possibly it is the optimist struggling to triumph the pessimist; one should never forget, but ubiquitous reminders, deaden sensitivities.

There have been countless books, movies, television shows, personal commentaries; one wearies of the plummeting, searing, torturous tales. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is a supreme example of Hollywood pushing an emotional button that has long surpassed its expiration date.

TWO & 1/2 STARS!!

For Now…………Peneflix