First Look: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I didn't expect Stephen Daldry's adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to make it out this year, but things got set in motion and the movie is set for a limited Christmas release, meaning it's being positioned as a prime Oscar contender.  

Its award potential cannot be overstated.  Daldry has directed three films - Billy Elliot, The Hours, and The Reader - and been nominated for the Best Director Oscar three times.  That's quite the track record, and there's little (in my mind, no, but I won't be so bold as to claim such) chance that this will be the film to break his impressive streak.

The film has everything going for it.  Aside from the director's pedigree, the screenplay is by Eric Roth, whose previous credits include Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  The cast includes Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, along with other big names including John Goodman, Viola Davis, and James Gandolfini.  

The subject matter is prime Oscar material, too.  Based on Jonathan Safran Foer's fantastic novel (Foer is my favorite modern writer, in fact), the story revolves around young Oskar Schell's (Jeopardy! contestant Thomas Horn) attempts to find closure after his father dies in the World Trade Center attack.  Oskar finds a key with "Black" written on it, and believing it to be someone's surname, he sets off to meet every Black in New York City (that's an odd-sounding sentence).  Roth and Daldry have both proven masters of emotional heartstring-tugging, so I expect this adaptation will be more successful than that of Foer's first novel, Everything is Illuminated.

Ultimately, the success of the film depends to a large degree on Horn's performance.  As a newcomer going toe-to-toe with heavyweight actors, it will be interesting to see if he can capture all of Oskar's emotion, curiosity, and humor.  Oskar is one of the funniest, most memorable narrators in recent literature, so I can't help but be wary of any attempt to translate him into flesh and blood for all to see.

Regardless, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of the movies I'm most looking forward to as we enter into awards season.  I expect it will be great, but even if it isn't, at least the film will bring even more attention to the book.

This first photo of Hanks and Horn suggests to me that Oskar's father 

will have an even bigger presence in the film than in the novel.

Star-power trumps faithfulness to the source material, always.