Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film) 1

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly CloseTheatrical release poster

Directed by Stephen Daldry

Produced by Scott Rudin

Screenplay by Eric Roth

Based on Extremely Loud and IncrediblyCloseby Jonathan Safran Foer

Starring Tom HanksSandra BullockThomas HornMax von SydowViola DavisJohn GoodmanJeffrey Wright

Music by Alexandre Desplat

Cinematography Chris Menges

Editing by Claire Simpson

Studio Scott Rudin Productions

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures

Release dates •• December 25, 2011

Running time 129 minutes

Country United States

Language English

Budget $40 million

Box office $55,247,881

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a 2011 American drama film adaptation of the novel of the same name byJonathan Safran Foer, directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Eric Roth. It stars Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks,Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, and Zoe Caldwell.Production took place in New York City. The film had a limited release in the United States on December 25, 2011,and a wide release on January 20, 2012. Despite mixed to negative reviews, the film was nominated for twoAcademy Awards, Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Max von Sydow.

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PlotThe film begins with a body that seems to be falling from the sky, alluding to people who fell or jumped from theWorld Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is introduced as the son ofGerman American Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks) who died during the attack.Oskar is incredibly smart, and his father knew that. He would often send him on missions to do something involvingone of his riddles. The last riddle his father ever gives him is proof that New York City once possessed a SixthBorough. In a flashback, Thomas and Oskar play a scavenger hunt to find objects throughout New York City. Thegame requires communication with other people and is not easy for the socially awkward Oskar: "if things were easyto find, they wouldn't be worth finding".On September 11, Oskar and his classmates are sent home from school early while his mother Linda (SandraBullock) is at work. When Oskar gets home, he finds five messages from his father on the answering machine sayinghe is in the World Trade Center. When Thomas calls for the sixth time, Oskar hears the phone ringing but is tooscared to answer. The machine records a sixth message, which stops when the building collapses, and Oskar knowshis father has been killed, and he falls to the floor. He replaces the answering machine with a new one and hides theold one so his mother will never find out.A few weeks after what Oskar calls "the worst day", he confides in his German grandmother and they become closer.Oskar's relationship with his mother worsens since she cannot explain why the World Trade Center was attacked andwhy his father died. Oskar tells his mother he wishes it had been her in the building, not his father, and she responds,"So do I". After, Oskar says he did not mean it, but his mother doesn't believe him.A year later, Oskar finds a vase in his father's closet with a key in an envelope with the word "Black" on it. He vowsto find what the key fits. He finds 472 Blacks in the New York phone book and plans to meet each of them to see ifthey knew his father. He first meets Abby Black (Viola Davis), who has recently divorced her husband. She tellsOskar she did not know his father.One day, Oskar realizes that a strange man (Max Von Sydow) has moved in with his grandmother. Oskar stumblesupon the stranger, who does not talk because of the childhood trauma caused by his parents' death in World War II.He communicates with written notes and his hands with "yes" and "no" written on them. As they become friends andgo together on the hunt to find what the key fits, Oskar learns to face his fears, such as those of public transport andbridges. Oskar concludes that the stranger is his grandfather. Oskar plays the answering machine messages for thestranger. Before playing the last message, the stranger cannot bear listening any longer, this message being his son'slast words, and stops Oskar. Later on, the stranger moves out and tells Oskar not to search anymore.When Oskar looks at a newspaper clipping his father gave him, he finds a circled phone number with a reference toan estate sale. He dials the number and reaches Abby, who wants to take Oskar to her ex-husband, William, whomay know about the key. William (Jeffrey Wright) tells Oskar he has been looking for the key. William had sold thevase to Oskar's father who never knew the key was in the vase. The key fits a safe deposit box where William'sfather left something for him. Disappointed and distraught because the key does not belong to him, Oskar confessesto William that he did not pick up the phone during his father's sixth and final phone call and then goes home.Oskar's mother tells Oskar she knew he was contacting the Blacks. She then informs him that she visited each Blackin advance and informed them that Oskar was going to visit and why. Oskar makes a scrapbook of his scavengerhunt and all the people he met and titles it "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." At the end of the scrapbook thereis an animation in which Thomas's body is falling up instead of down.Oskar's grandfather returns to live with Oskar's grandmother.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film) 3

Cast• Thomas Horn as Oskar Schell• Max von Sydow as Thomas Schell, Sr./The Renter• Sandra Bullock as Linda Schell• Viola Davis as Abby Black• Tom Hanks as Thomas Schell• John Goodman as Stan the Doorman• Jeffrey Wright as William Black• Zoe Caldwell as Oskar's grandmother• Hazelle Goodman as Hazelle Black

Production

DevelopmentIn August 2010, it was reported that director Stephen Daldry and producer Scott Rudin had been working on a filmadaptation of the novel for five years. Eric Roth was hired to write the script. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close isa co-production with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., with Warner being the "lead studio". Chris Mengesserved as director of photography, K. K. Barrett as production designer and Ann Roth as costume designer.

CastingTom Hanks and Sandra Bullock were the first to be cast in the film. A nationwide search for child actors between theages of 9 and 13 began in late October 2010 for the role of Oskar Schell. Thomas Horn, who had won over $30,000at age 12[1] on the 2010 Jeopardy! Kids Week, was chosen for the role in December 2010. Horn had had no prioracting interest but was approached by the producers based on his quiz-show appearance. On January 3, 2011 TheHollywood Reporter announced that John Goodman joined the cast. That same month Viola Davis and JeffreyWright were cast. Nico Muhly was credited in the film poster as the composer, but on October 21, 2011 it wasreported that Alexandre Desplat was chosen to compose the score. Similarly, James Gandolfini was credited on theinitial poster, and was originally in the film as a love interest for Bullock's character. However, test audiences reactednegatively to their scenes together, and he was cut. German actress Senta Berger was offered a role in the film, butrefused.

CharacterizationDaldry stated in an interview that the film is about "a special child who is somewhere on the autistic spectrum, tryingto find his own logic – trying to make sense of something that literally doesn’t make sense to him." When asked howmuch research was necessary to realistically portray a character with such a condition, he answered "we did a lot ofresearch," and that he "spent a lot of time with different experts of Asperger’s and talked to them." In the film, Oskarreveals that he was tested for Asperger syndrome, but the results were inconclusive. As Daldry explained: "Everychild is different on the autistic spectrum, so we created our own version of a child that was in some way – notheavily, but somewhere on that spectrum in terms of the fears and the phobias."There are no references to autism in the novel. Author Jonathan Safran Foer stated in an interview that he had neverthought of Oskar as autistic, but added, "Which is not to say he isn't - it's really up for readers to decide. It's not tosay that plenty of descriptions of him wouldn't be fitting, only that I didn't have them in mind at the time."

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FilmingPrincipal photography was expected to begin in January, but started in March 2011 in New York City. Filming wenton hiatus in June. On May 16, 2011, scenes were shot on the streets of the Lower East Side and Chinatown. Craneswere used to shoot scenes on the corner of Orchard Street and Grand Street. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closewas filmed with an Arri Alexa and was the first Hollywood feature film to use Arri's ArriRaw format to store thedata for post-production. Several scenes for the film were shot in Central Park, an location that is integral to thestoryline, near The Lake and Wollman Rink. The Seaport Jewelry Exchange on Fulton St. was used for a pivotalscene in the film when the son is searching through a jewelry store and its back room.[citation needed]

ReleaseDaldry had hoped to have the film released around the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001. A test screening took place in New York on September 25, 2011 to a positive reaction. Extremely Loud andIncredibly Close had a limited release in the United States on December 25, 2011, and a wide release on January 20,2012. It was released in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2012.

Home media releaseThe film was released in Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download formats in Region 1 on March 27, 2012.

Critical receptionThe film received mixed reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 47% approval ratingwith an average rating of 5.5/10 based on 177 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Extremely Loud & IncrediblyClose has a story worth telling, but it deserves better than the treacly and pretentious treatment director StephenDaldry gives it." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics,gives the film a score of 46 based on 40 reviews.Critics were sharply divided about the subject matter of the film. Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote thatthe film was a "handsomely polished, thoughtfully wrapped Hollywood production about the national tragedy of9/11 that seems to have forever redefined words like 'unthinkable,' 'unforgivable,' 'catastrophic'." Andrea Peyser ofthe New York Post called it "Extremely, incredibly exploitive" and a "quest for emotional blackmail, cheap thrillsand a naked ploy for an Oscar." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film one out of four stars saying that"[the] film feels all wrong on every level, mistaking precociousness for perceptiveness and catastrophe for a cuddlingsession. It's calculated as Oscar bait, but the bait is poisoned by opportunism and feigned sensitivity".

Accolades

Award Category Nominee Result

84th Academy Awards Best Picture Scott Rudin Nominated

Best Supporting Actor Max von Sydow Nominated

Boston Film Critics Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated

Art Directors Guild Best Art Direction in a Contemporary Film K.K. Barrett Nominated

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Picture Nominated

Best Director Stephen Daldry Nominated

Best Young Actor/Actress Thomas Horn Won

Best Adapted Screenplay Eric Roth Nominated

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film) 5

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Picture Nominated

Best Supporting Actor Max von Sydow Nominated

Georgia Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actor Nominated

Best Supporting Actress Sandra Bullock Nominated

Houston Film Critics Society Best Picture Nominated

Phoenix Film Critics Society Best Original Score Alexandre Desplat Nominated

Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role - Male Thomas Horn Won

Breakthrough Performance on Camera Won

San Diego Film Critics Society Awards Best Supporting Actor Max von Sydow Nominated

Best Score Alexandre Desplat Nominated

Teen Choice Awards Teen Choice Award for Best Actress Drama Sandra Bullock Nominated

Best Picture nominationExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close was expected to be a major contender and the 84th Academy Awards (StephenDaldry's previous two films had garnered Best Picture nominations). However, due to the film's polarizing receptionand being ignored by most of the Critics Groups Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the British Academy FilmAwards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, it was no longer deemed as a major contender. However, the film wasnominated for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor. Critics and audiences criticized the film's nomination for BestPicture, with some calling the film one of the worst Best Picture nominees ever. Chris Krapek of The HuffingtonPost wrote very negatively about the film's nomination, calling the film "not only the worst reviewed Best Picturenominee of the last 10 years, [but] easily the worst film of 2011". Paste Magazine's Adam Vitcavage called the film"certainly the worst for at least 28 years", and David Gritten of The Telegraph calls the nomination "mysterious".Many critics have blamed the new Best Picture rules for the nomination. John Young at Entertainment Weekly saysthat when it comes to the new rules, "it's better to be loved by a small and passionate group instead of liked by amuch larger group", and Jen Chaney at The Washington Post, believes that, "the Academy should've just stuck to the10 rule so that films like Dragon Tattoo or Harry Potter could've joined the other worthy contenders, because ifyou’re going to create a bunch of drama around the number of nominees and then come up one shy of what hasbecome the typical total, that just feels like a letdown." The Week writes that the new rules are a failure, as it lets"smaller, divisive movies that the Academy had hoped to weed out, like Tree of Life and Extremely Loud andIncredibly Close in, but prevents critically-praised crowd pleasers like Bridesmaids and The Girl With the DragonTattoo from being nominated."Not all critics were negative about the nomination. Tom O'Neil, a former L.A. Times critic, analyzed the film's fewnominations in other awards and its polarizing reaction from critics stating: "This is a movie that we unwisely wroteoff, but we did it because we believed the critics. This movie delivers. It is a superb motion picture. It is moving, it isrelevant to our time, it is extremely well made."At the 84th Academy Awards, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close lost in both of its categories (Best Picture toThe Artist and Best Supporting Actor to Christopher Plummer for Beginners).

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film) 6

References[1] Siegel, Robert, "Stephen Daldry Discusses New Movie" (http:/ / www. npr. org/ 2011/ 12/ 20/ 144029796/

stephen-daldry-discusses-new-movie), interview with Daltry, All Things Considered, NPR, December 20, 2011. Audio only. Retrieved2011-12-20.

External links• Official website (http:/ / extremelyloudmovie. com/ )• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0477302/ ) at the Internet Movie Database• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (http:/ / www. allmovie. com/ movie/ v544542) at allmovie• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (http:/ / www. boxofficemojo. com/ movies/ ?id=extremelyloud. htm) at

Box Office Mojo• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (http:/ / www. rottentomatoes. com/ m/

extremely_loud_and_incredibly_close/ ) at Rotten Tomatoes• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (http:/ / www. metacritic. com/ movie/

extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close) at Metacritic

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Article Sources and ContributorsExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film)  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=582686259  Contributors: 19 minutes, 90 Auto, Aaadddaaammm, Adam Bishop, AlbertSM,All Hallow's Wraith, Allens, Andres, AndyGraham10, AnthonyBl2, Asaraullo05, AzureCitizen, BattleshipMan, Bbb23, Bearcat, Big Bird, BlessedPsycho, Bongwarrior, Boushenheiser,Bovineboy2008, BradleyBadder, Cadwaladr, CapeCanaveral321, Captain Assassin!, CaroleHenson, Caspertheghost, Chickenmonkey, Chris the speller, Chrismid259, Collinjiashu, Corvoe,Cowlibob, Cralb821, Cubby666, Daljp11, DavidMann, DemirBajraktarevic, Denisarona, Derekandkidfriendjeff, DoubleCross, EclecticEnnui, Epbr123, FishPhileo, Fluffernutter, FollowGuard,Forego5, Frank, Fæ, Georgehouse, GhostFace1234, Giantdevilfish, Gildir, Guessing Game, Harry the Dirty Dog, Hp Potter, Huandy618, Illegitimate Barrister, JDDJS, JackofOz, Johnny122229,Jonjon082693, Joseph A. Spadaro, Juybari, Jzummak, Kalliequeen, KokoroTechnix, Kollision, Koopatrev, Ldog50001017, LeopardDazzle, MarkDafoe, Markzero, Mayckon.trudes, MikeAllen,MikeWazowski, Mjs1991, MrWii000, Mrgratos, MusikAnimal, Ndboy, Noboyo, Nodaybuttoday10, Norgizfox5041, Patrick, Patrick Rogel, Player017, PurpleKrazy9909, Quentin X, Rasmusbyg,Renithsamm, Ruby2010, Saethwr, Scriptwriter, Shannon Tucker, Simon824, SpencerCollins, Spiedo, Stevenrl, Sunz600, Swliv, Taft27, Tanjalo, Th1rt3en, The Shadow-Fighter, TheGeneralUser,Thismightbezach, Tiller54, Tinman44, TonyTheTiger, Varlaam, Wesvanmess, Whoop whoop pull up, Wikimandia, Woohookitty, 251 anonymous edits

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