This was the last of the Best Picture nominees that I saw. The saying “save the best for last” doesn’t apply to this movie. The first half of the movie is torture. To watch a precocious, 9 year old kid with possible Asperger’s for entertainment was as enjoyable as watching paint dry. The movie doesn’t get going until Max Von Sydow steps in as a mute-which says something about how this film was going. Still, he is able to rescue the picture from being a complete trainwreck, without saying a word. In fact, he never says a word throughout the film Wouldn’t that be interesting if the best picture, best actor, best supporting actress and best supporting actor Oscars all went to movies, actors and actresses that never said one word? (Max Von Sydow is up for supporting actor). Still, his character doesn’t last long in the film, but luckily the second half is a bit better than the first, but not by much. This movie stars Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Jeffery Wright, in addition to Max Von Sydow. Yet, Thomas Horn, the 9 year old, dominates the screen time, and not very well. In researching this blog, Thomas was a kid’s Jeopardy champion and actually 14. And in fact, this fits. I was thinking I would be critical of movies that feature children as the main actors and how difficult it is for the main audience to lose themselves completely in them (see Phantom Menace), but as I was writing this I remembered my reaction to Hugo’s child actor, Asa Butterfield, also 14. I thought he was completely engrossing as an actor. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a throwaway type of movie. It’s themes are similar to the Hallmark made for TV movies. Like War Horse, I was confused as what people saw in this film as to nominate it for Best Picture.
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