Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Directed by Stephen Daldry. Starring Thomas Horn, Max von Sydow, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Zoe Caldwell, Stephen McKinley Henderson. [PG-13]

Spurious, self-important post-9/11 tearjerker, the second shameless Oscar-bait-y project in a row for director Daldry (after The Reader) that’s almost stunning in how badly it compartmentalizes and aestheticizes immense tragedy. An autistic youth (Horn) living in New York City struggles to cope with the death of his father (Hanks), who was in the World Trade Center on that fateful day; after a year or so has gone by, Horn discovers a key he believes to be a clue from his father for one of the elaborate treasure hunt-style games they used to play, and so he sets out with the help of an elderly mute neighbor (von Sydow) to “solve the riddle.” The insufferable protagonist is given an undefined condition that can nourish whatever idiosyncratic tic or emotional outburst/chokehold the filmmakers want, his ally is little more than a gimmick and a vessel, and the bond that suddenly grows between the kid and his distant, underwritten mother (Bullock) forces the uplifting hand so hard it feels more like a cynical slap. Precious and pretentious are always poor bedfellows, and coating the whole thing in syrupy sentiment results in an opposing effect—turns it into a much tougher, more bitter pill to swallow. Screenplay by Eric Roth, adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel.

20/100