My friend Abhaya is an avid movie watcher and apart from going to the theaters to watch them he also uses modern technology to download Satellite TV film shows to see at his convenience. Whenever he comes across something really nice, he immediately sends an alert for me to try and see the same movie. On 9/11 I got a message from him asking me to see Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close a film using the 9/11 incidents to show a young boy’s journey to find some connection to his father who dies in the WTC collapse.
On receipt of the message, I had sent for a DVD of the same movie and it came this morning and I watched it earlier this evening. One of the reasons that I prefer seeing movies at home is that I can put the player on pause and do some other things and return to the player at my convenience, but this was one film that did not allow me to indulge in such a relaxed viewing. It held my attention from the word go and till the end, a 130 minute experience, I was glued to my seat. I had even switched off my phone so that I would not be disturbed and I am glad that I did.
To be honest, what convinced me to send for the DVD was Abhaya’s message that said that the film starred Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. The movie has more or less cameo roles for both though when they do appear they deliver powerful performances. Max von Sydow another bonus actor actually has the most powerful role to play apart from the hero of the film young Thomas Horn. Full marks to the director Stephen Daldry for having got a truly magnificent performance out of the young lad and very memorable performances from the other supporting cast.
I don’t remember to have heard about this film when it was released four years ago. I wonder whether it was released at all in India. It is a powerful movie on relationships and nostalgia particularly for an eleven year old young boy. As I write this, I am still under the influence of the performance of Horn. I am sure that he will grow up to be a very successful actor. I have no hesitation whatsoever in giving the movie the full [rating=6] rating.
If you have not seen it, please do. You will not regret it.