imagination ain't kind on us tonight.

Okay, so, the general consensus RE: The Oscars is that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a piece-of-shit movie that shouldn’t have been nominated, right?

Oh, okay. Because I have feelings about that.

I understand that this movie isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, so to speak. I certainly know that the book gets a lot of flack for being pretentious and over-the-top and the movie is, well, you know, an adaptation of that. But what I don’t understand is why everyone has panned it from the get-go.

Is it because it’s about 9/11? I’m serious. Is the subject matter something that people think shouldn’t be used to ‘play on our emotions’? Because I’ll tell you what I got out of that book as someone whose life has been, at least by proxy, affected by 9/11 (as the majority of yours have been, too).

At it’s core, this is a story about loss. It’s a story about a sadness that can’t be lifted; it’s about wearing ‘heavy boots’ that a boy can’t take off because he doesn’t know how to, metaphorically, untie them. It’s about family; the people you love and the people you hate only because you love them so much. It’s about fear and anxiety and overcoming both. It’s about learning to live again. It’s about hope. It’s about everything that makes human existence so wonderful and so unique and yes, Foer’s way of describing it all is ambitious and pretentious and a whole lot of other things. Yes, 9/11 is important in the novel so far as that it was an event that connected so many people together from all walks of life, united by a common grief. Some people think that Foer exploited this tragedy to play with our emotions but I can tell you that that’s not how I interpreted it. I saw it as a great catalyst for bringing people together and providing new and wonderful insights from old and young alike. The same was also done in Foer’s Everything is Illuminated with references to the Holocaust and people were up in arms about that as well. Again, I don’t think these horrific events were exploited but rather used for good. If we can’t take away some good from the bad, then what use is it to us?

So, back to the movie. Even though it did leave a lot out and change a bit of the narrative, I thought it was so good at capturing the overall theme and tone of the novel. It just felt human. The performances were excellent, especially Thomas Horn. Just like Oskar in the novel, he started out incredibly irritating but about 3/4 of the way through you start to relate and connect to him in ways that you hadn’t thought possible. Tom Hanks was so incredibly perfect as the father, as was Sandra Bullock as the mother. Every casting choice was pitch perfect (in my opinion).

So, the performances are great. I thought it was a very aesthetically pleasing film as well. I think the editing tried to recreate the feel of the book itself with its choppiness at times and it really worked. The colours were bright and everything felt so warm despite the subject matter, which is what I always sort of felt when reading, if that even makes sense.

I know I’m biased, but I really don’t get why so many people are outraged by the nomination. I know everyone has their own personal tastes and whatnot, but I just think the hate for this one is too much. And in closing (well it’s not even really closing because I’m just rambling my ass off), I’d like to share a wee-bit of my undergrad thesis, because YES, I wrote about this book (well, at least for part of it): 

     Foer’s novel, while taking place in a contemporary time and setting, shares a lot of similarities with earlier coming of age stories. The central character is faced with obstacles he must overcome if he wishes to grow up, the central character has a family that directly or indirectly influences this process, and in the end readers are called to judge if the character was successful or not in this endeavor. The isolating nature of modern American society and all that it entails, especially fear surrounding the September 11th attacks, makes for an incredibly rich coming of age tale dealing with some incredibly trying ordeals. Not only does Oskar grow up in a large city that is, for the most part, individualistic, but he must do so without a father figure. Throughout the novel the role of the extended family plays a great deal not only in Oskar’s personal story, but in the overall narrative. Foer’s ability to flesh these background characters into loving, supportive people that are just as flawed and hurt as Oskar shows the complexities of today’s North American society. These characters are not merely supports for a young child, but rather fully realized individuals that in order to heal, need Oskar just as much as he needs them.