'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' (11)

'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' (11) (PG-13) (1 STAR)

Writer: Eric Roth based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
Director: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max Von Sydow, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, Zoe Caldwell

I know there can be a great movie made out of the 9/11 tragedy and it has been proven by the powerful "United 93". There has always been a debate on what is too soon for there to be a movie made from this awful tragedy. It has been over ten years so I think it has been enough time. Though if movies like "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" get made then maybe there shouldn't be any movies about 9/11 ever. This is a manipulative, offensive and phony movie and I sat stone faced throughout until I laughed a few times. The movie is based on a best selling book and if the movie is faithful to the book then shame also on Jonathan Foer who wrote the novel.

The movie tells the story of Oskar Schell who is an 11 year old boy who is believed to have Asperger's Syndrome. Oskar has lost his father to the 9/11 tragedy and oh he also finds out his grandparents survived the Holocaust. So you have the filmmakers not only using 9/11 to manipulate us with a bad story but also using the Holocaust. I wouldn't mind the filmmakers using both these dark subjects to tell it's story if it was a smart movie that didn't feel like someone was forcing me to cry to a cheap story. When a movie gets to me emotionally I can start to cry and I have cried during a lot of movies. I didn't feel at any moment during this movie any concern or emotion to any characters or the story so trust me this movie is lame.

Oskar's father when he was alive had Oskar doing certain tasks out in the city and if Oskar may have Asperger's then isn't it cruel for the father to give him these tasks? Anyway after Oskar's father dies jumping from a building Oskar finds a key he left in an envelope with the last name Black on it. So Oskar then goes out into the city again to find out what this key is for and does it involve his father. So Oskar searches and runs into many city dwellers that are all weakly and shallowly written. There is no character development here at all and I actually found Oskar annoying and sorry to say the child actor playing him, Thomas Horn, is a weak young actor.

Oskar then meets a mute street person played by Max Von Sydow and what a shamless tool and character for the writers to come up with. The mute man has a dark back story and I am surprised the writers didn't give him cancer also. The movie just piles on all these phony moments that are implausible and could never happen in real life. So you can see what made me mad here, you are using 9/11, the worst tragedy this country has encountered, to give us such false moments to get us to cry.

Then the movie gets worse in the last half hour. Oskar writes a letter and sends it to all the people he has met on his journey. He thanks them for helping him on his quest and all these people have lost close ones to the 9/11 tragedy. Then we get a montage of all thse people reading the letter and crying. How arrogant is this movie to think that all these people who have lost family members should drop everything to make them care about this one boy and his father? We never have met half of these people reading the letter so how are we supposed to feel for anybody?

If you love Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock don't expect them to be in it that much. Hanks is in it for 5 minutes total and John and Jane Schmo could have played these characters in their sleep. So now you have Hanks and Bullock to use as more manipulation to see this insulting movie. There are so many great child actors these days in movies so I do not apologize for saying that young Thomas Horn as Oskar is over acting here and he annoyed the heck out of me. The movie ends with a howler of a scene that made me roll my eyes and gag. We find out who the key belongs to and Oskar and this person have a pointless, embarassing and fake emotional scene.

This is one of the phoniest, most maudlin and unintentionally funniest movies I have seen in a long time! The writing is manipulative and terrible and none of the characters have any depth. I also have a burning question to ask about this movie. If Oskar went out by himself in New York City on his journey don't you think he would encounter trouble or have had his life threatened or maybe be mugged? Not in this movie's fake and phony New York City. Congratulations to Stephen Daldry the director who also directed the manipulative and horrible "The Reader". Along with "Patch Adams" and "I am Sam" you have made one of the three worst tearjerkers in film history!

P.S. I forgot the most insulting thing about this movie, showing in slow motion people jumping from buildings as the planes hit. What a cheap and manipulative and just plain wrong trick!

P.S. For movies like this that are much better you can watch anything actually. Seriously, "United 93" is still the best movie made about 9/11 so far and it is powerful.