Film Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (12A)

LINGERING dad issues seem to be the default of every film at the moment; even War Horse shows the bonding of a teenager (lousy father) with a thoroughbred (dad bolted before he was born). So when the father of nine-year-old Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) turns out to be Tom Hanks at his most flawless, avuncular and alpha-papaish, you fear the worst.

Sure enough, Dad perishes after jumping or falling out of one of the burning towers on 11 September, 2001. A year later, while rummaging through his father’s wardrobe, Oskar finds a key hidden in a vase. He thinks it’s a clue from one of the elaborate scavenger hunts that his father used to organise to challenge and socialise his precocious but awkward son; so he sets out to interview all 800-odd New Yorkers who share the surname Black, the name on the envelope which contained the key, in the hope of uncovering some hidden final message from his father.

Doesn’t the idea of fatherless boys hunting for keys to keys sound a little familiar? Yes, if you saw Hugo two months ago. The difference is that Oskar is far more eccentric than Hugo; in fact he’s an illustrated manual of Asperger tics and neuroses. He fears trains so he has to cross New York on foot, and carries a tambourine to comfort himself. He catalogues his interviewees on a Rolodex, and pastes mementoes into his scrapbook. He’s also supremely indifferent to other people’s feelings, especially his mother (Sandra Bullock); one living parent is apparently no substitute for a dead one.

Throughout the film, in speech and in thought, Oskar maintains a running commentary of factoids, observations and questions. Oddly, however, he never asks himself why Thomas Schell, a New York jeweller with an estranged German dad, is played by Tom Hanks. Hanks is many things, but he’s about as Jewish as a bacon sarnie.

Come to that, how can Thomas Schell’s modest business support the cost of their large, airy New York apartment, complete with sardonic doorman (John Goodman)? He doesn’t even unravel the obvious family connection between his father and the old mute gent Oskar finds staying in his grandmother’s flat. Granny’s tenant is played by Max von Sydow, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Von Sydow is the best thing in the film, even though he never utters a word, relying instead on a scribble pad, and the words “Yes” and “No” tattooed on his hands. Also he offers some relief from Oskar’s garrulous information overload. Certainly when he desperately signed for Oskar to shut up, I wanted to give him a high five on his Yes hand.

Director Stephen Daldry has previous experience of precocious boys (Billy Elliot), secretive Germans (The Reader) and beautifully photographed tedium (The Hours). This reaches a nexus of sorts in this unfortunate attempt to turn the enormity of 11 September into a sentimental fable about a bereaved child seeking consolation.

Yet although it’s uncomfortable and mawkish, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close doesn’t even have the shameless moxy to stink the place out. In other words, even its failure lacks distinction. It’s just a well-intentioned, mediocre film: extremely self-important and incredibly tiresome. «

On general release from Friday