Review: 9/10 Can of Whoop Ass
Extremely
Loud and Incredibly Close
Early on in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Oskar Shell points out that eventually there will be too many dead people to bury in cemeteries. He envisions cemeteries necessarily going underground, thousands of feet underneath the surface of the earth, creating a veritable world of the dead, positioned directly below the world of the living. This terrifying image is one of central metaphors that persist throughout Extremely Loud: how does life exist so close to death? The film is emotional and poignant, but its true success lies in its mastery of thematic connection. All the pieces of the story fit not just into a plot, but into a larger interpretation of what it means to be alive when we all must die. Ultimately, the film lovingly offers the idea that the existence of death doesn’t cheapen life – it is simply a requisite of the journey.
The film begins by exploring the close relationship
between young Oskar (Thomas Horn) and his
dad, Thomas
(Tom Hanks). Thomas sends Oskar on “reconnaissance
expeditions” to follow clues he
has left that lead his son around the neighborhood and force him to
interact
with strangers. Thomas encourages Oskar’s intellectual endeavors, but
stresses the importance
of taking risks and trusting others. The
sixth mission Thomas sends Oskar on is to
locate the
elusive “sixth borough” of
Oskar’s world is
shattered. He distances himself from his
mother and collapses into an obsessive relationship with the
circumstances
surrounding his father’s death. A
year
later, he finds a key hidden inside a vase in his father’s closet. The majority of the film is Oskar’s attempt to locate the lock for
which the key
belongs. Using the name
“Black”, which
was written on a small envelope the key was inside, Oskar
begins a meticulous process of systematically questioning every person
in
On his journey through the boroughs of
Oskar’s troubled relationship with his mother, Linda (Sandra Bullock) is similarly resolved when Oskar finds out she has been in on his search the entire time. This plot twist explains away much of the doubt a viewer might have about a school-age boy escorting himself all over one of the most dangerous cities in America, but it more importantly echoes the important thought that no journey is alone – not the journey to death, and especially not the journey through life. Oskar’s heartache is not his alone, and there is relief in that shared sense of loss.
Oskar’s grandfather joins in his quest to find the home of the key. Interestingly, the grandfather is mute and never named other than as, “the Renter”. He is a sympathetic old man who feels for Oskar, but he too has dealt with loss, and his sense of regret never really went away. One sees in the Renter the awful future Oskar may be headed for. His silence is a stand-in for the unspeakable despair of never letting go. If you fill yourself with tragedy, soon there won’t be room for anything else, just as the fear of death can become actual death, and just as memory can consume the future.
Ultimately, Thomas’ instruction to Oskar
to find the sixth borough of
Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud is based off a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, who also wrote the novel Everything is Illuminated. That book and eventual film also dealt with issues of death and reconciling memory with loss. Foer’s novels are tightly wound with connected metaphors and plot lines that go as deep as they go forward. In both film adaptations of his novels, Foer’s vision of life’s interconnectedness is strong enough to offer a powerful template for the films to exist as philosophical triumphs. Watching Extremely Close, one can’t escape the feeling of fine craftsmanship and every part having its place. This foresight offers a comfortable vehicle by which to explore such heavy subject matter.
The nuts and bolts of the film are mainly in service of
the themes that govern them, but some scenes fell flat and went on too
long. One noticeable plot hole was the
lack of explanation for why Thomas Schell, a jeweler, was “taking
a meeting” in
the
But also in real life, time goes on. Life
goes on.
Despite the biological end death can bring to life, it can never
destroy
the essence of what it is to be alive. Oskar discovers the sixth borough is nothing
more than his
memory of his father. Or
the people of