Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Truth be told, I didn't know what to expect with this movie. The trailer doesn't really give anything away, and it wasn't so overly hyped that any twists were given away instantly upon release. And being more honest, I'm not totally sure why. While its certainly true that (to me at least) the characters (with the exception of Tom Hanks) are not instantly likeable, it's also the case that I have to admit to spending the last 10 minutes in floods of tears. Now I'm no stranger to my feminine side, but the emotion in this movie just seems so subtle at the start, that being snuck up on so close to the end just brings with it even more impact. Indeed, the very journey the audience is taken on in empathising with the characters makes the crescendo of emotion all the more intense.

Sun Zu would be proud at this level of planning

While all this talk of emotional endings is all very well and good, the filmmakers did choose subject matter that should have struggled to be anything but. In fairness, the story being so entrenched in heartbreaking fact and real life events does result in something even more real and more painful being brought to life, but it does rely on its script and a very well chosen cast to solidify the emotion. In the same vein, the very fact that the main role is played by a Hollywood 'unknown' (Thomas Horn) actually makes the film all the better, eliminating potential distractions to the central point of the story, and providing a better canvas for the emotion of the final chapters. The final word of this review though has to stay with the silent yet undeniably best supporting actor of the film; the city of New York. One other online review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close likens the film to a love letter to the city, and it's an analogy that's easy to follow. The elegance and flow of the story is really only possible thanks to the beauty and tragedy of the setting itself, a feature-length postcard of affection to the city that never sleeps.