My rating values:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close
Set in New York city, this is a movie about a fatherless child and his search for meaning. A year after his father [played by Tom Hanks] died in the towers of the World Trade Center in 2001, Oskar Schell finds a key in his father's closet. Mom [played by Sandra Bullock] had not moved Dad's things so when Oskar reached to grab his grandfather's camera from the top shelf, a blue vase fell to the floor. Inside of the vase was a small envelope with a key on it. The envelope said one thing - "Black". Thinking that his father had set up an investigation excursion, Oskar decides to find this Black and figure out what the key is for. Along the way, he finds that he must overcome his fears, meet people {which had previously been very difficult for him to do} to ask them about the key, and let each person he meets to share their story. Though he has over four hundred Blacks to find in the city of New York and wants to get the mystery solved quickly, he finds that everyone took more of his time than he planned to spend with them. When he sits down and talks with his Mom about them, he finds that each person was missing something or someone also. Each person made an impression on him, for good or for bad. They are a community, even if connected through the commonality that each is missing something or that they live in the city of New York.
It was rather saddening to watch the scenes about the WTC attack on September 11, but it made me think about what happened back then. It has been so long (over 10 years, can you believe it?!) and not living near NYC helps dull the memory of that day. But it was interesting to think about how one event can easily traumatize a person. Oskar was painfully aware of sounds, planes, towers, ambulances, sirens, bridges, places to be trapped, etc. These fears can be seen as a part of his experience with the towers, though he was not personally there when it happened. However, living in the city of NYC and having lost his father in the WTC, the event definitely would have changed his life. I would not be surprised if I heard about many people from NYC being traumatized from that day ("The Worst Day", as Oskar called it).
5/5 – I cried, I laughed. It was interesting watching this kid trying to solve a mystery and run all over NYC. I was also very glad to hear that his mother had gone to all the places before he did just so the people would have been warned about Oskar coming to stop by. It showed that she was a good mother, worried about her son, though in the middle of the movie she seemed to be "absent". Oskar did learn about a lot of things, though his father was definitely not coming back to them.
Warning: This movie has vivid emotional flashbacks to the Sept. 11, '01 WTC attack.
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