Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Stephen Daldry, 2011)
Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock
A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
The American reviewers didn't like this - or those I read anyway. Two of them independently thought of the same word to sum it up: 'kitsch'. They didn't like that anyone would use 9/11 as the basis for a tearjerker - a melodrama, in the pejorative sense of the word (and indeed the music in this film shows you how the director hopes you will experience it).
I didn't like the contrivance, nor the irritating main character, nor that one of the actors I most admire, Max von Sydow, had a non-speaking part, nor the snotty crying (I had quite enough of Viola Davis doing that in Fences). I could probably think of more negatives, but I'd rather go to bed.
Garry Gillard | New: 5 March, 2017 | Now: 13 October, 2018