Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2012) // dir. Stephen Daldry

A young boy attempts to deal with his fathers death in the 9/11 attacks.

Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, the film follows Oskar (Thomas Horn), a meticulous young boy on a quest to find the owner of a mysterious key seemingly left to him by his father (Tom Hanks) after his tragic death in the 9/11 attacks. Using a good premise and a sensitive subject matter as a baseline, the start of the film is promising; flashback footage illustrating the strength of the father-son relationship, phone messages from Hanks at the time of the attacks, and Oskar's resentful attitude towards mother (Sandra Bullock). Subsequently, we arrive at the hunt for the key. With the word 'Black' being the only clue, and an enigmatic, mute lodger as his only accomplice (Max von Sydow), it seems like an impossible task. Here, the film dips slightly as Oskar's quest becomes overlong and a little lacklustre - you'd be forgiven for becoming a tad uninterested by the time it reaches it's anti-climatic conclusion. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close feels very formulaic in parts, unnecessarily trying to encompass all the ingredients of an archtypal Hollywood blockbuster. When we meet von Sydow, the "unexpected" lodger, it all feels very predictable and an altogether unsurprising revelation. The turnaround in the mother-son relationship also seems very clichéd, as if it was included solely for a moral ending. One of the film's major downfalls was the lack of a likeable protagonist. As a viewer, it was difficult to feel sympathetic towards a character so insolent and annoying.

A little mediocre in parts, and undeservedly nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but watchable nonetheless.