"Extremely Loud and incredibly Close" Review
I watched Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This movie showed consequences, good and bad, that terrorist attacks could have on a family. It is about a boy, Oskar Schell, who is thought to have Asperger’s syndrome and found a key in his deceased father’s closet. The key was in a vase and inside an envelope with the word “Black” written on it. He searched for every person with the name Black, in New York, to find the lock it opens and hoped to unlock a secret of his father’s past. Oskar starts his search one year after Thomas, his father, died during the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on 9/11, or “the worst day,” as Oskar called it. When Thomas was alive, he always helped Oskar to confront his fears. He played puzzle games that forced Oskar to socialize with people by searching New York for clues.
This film did a good job of showing the family’s pain and grief after the terrorist attack without going overboard. It presented situations that could happen within a nonfictional family that allows the audience to connect with the characters. Oskar’s grandfather was not in his life or in his father’s life but came back after his father died in the World Trade Center and kept his identity a secret. He stayed with Oskar’s grandmother and was referred to as “the renter.” While searching New York for the lock with Oskar, his cover was blown because he did the same shoulder shrug Oskar’s father would do. |
Oskar’s mother seemed disconnected from him, with grief, after the worst day and had left his father’s clothes untouched in the closet. He felt like his mother was there for him only a quarter of the time. It was disclosed toward the end of the movie that she knew what he was doing and went to every Black he was going to visit before he did. She knew he had to make sense of things by himself so she did not ask what he was doing. She was worried the whole time he was gone and was not being an absent parent, as the movie suggested at first.
This movie tied up all the loose ends and in a unique way. Oskar wrote a letter to everyone he visited and explained what happened with the key. He found out the key did not belong to his father. William Black held an estate sale and gave the vase to his father. The key was for William and he was also looking for it but gave up after 9/11. The movie showed the family coming together, for the first time after 9/11, after Oskar made sense of everything. He finally had a conversation with his mother about Thomas’s great characteristics as a father and husband. The movie ended with Oskar solving the puzzle game his father and he were playing before Thomas died.
This movie tied up all the loose ends and in a unique way. Oskar wrote a letter to everyone he visited and explained what happened with the key. He found out the key did not belong to his father. William Black held an estate sale and gave the vase to his father. The key was for William and he was also looking for it but gave up after 9/11. The movie showed the family coming together, for the first time after 9/11, after Oskar made sense of everything. He finally had a conversation with his mother about Thomas’s great characteristics as a father and husband. The movie ended with Oskar solving the puzzle game his father and he were playing before Thomas died.