Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Based solely on the trailer and absolutely nothing else (as I had never heard of it until just now), my purely amateurish moviegoer and non-film school critic's opinion is that it looks like it's trying way too hard to be meaningful and heartfelt. Nine-year-old boys usually do not teach us profound life lessons, and they usually do not engage in heavy soul searching shortly after losing a parent in a horrible tragedy, contrary to the impression I get the filmmakers are trying to leave.

You can't manipulate people into feeling great about a movie if it's not organic. Viewers will respond emotionally if the material is emotional and genuine, but if they are steered too hard by stock dialogue and cliches and musical cues that tell them exactly how they are supposed to feel at that very instant, most of us feel somehow that we are being manipulated by superficial material and deep down we rebel against it. That's how I suspect I will react when I watch this, again based solely on the trailer, for what that's worth.

I realize that everything I wrote is based on speculation and a gut impression from a 2 1/2 minute trailer. That's all I've got to go on at this point. Oh, and the film title is way too cumbersome. I've always wondered how much poorly titling a film impacts its box office attendance.

WOW...
Either this will win BP...or it will go down in history as the sappiest piece of poop ever.

^^^Thanks, oink. "Sappy" is a concise word I should have used. I would also add "maudlin," "saccharine," and "contrived." Oh, and for me personally, "unseen" and "unwanted."

The book absolutely wrecked me emotionally. The climax is just devastating.

Not impressed by the trailer. The kid seems too old. The whole point of the book is that he's too young to comprehend the concept of death. Like Will2007 said, the film also looks like very button-pushing and "uplifting" awards bait. Which I guess I'd expect from the director of Billy Elliott. Maybe it's just a bad trailer, but I don't hold out much hope for it.

I'm confused? Is the nine-year old an inventor, jewelry designer, etc., or are those other characters?

Thanks.

One person. He's very precocious. In the book, while I don't believe it's explicitly stated, it's implied that he may have Asperger Syndrome or something similar. He comes across as a quirky character but stays on the right side of annoying.

I don't think the kid in the trailer is conveying this well. But, again, it could just be a bad trailer.

At least one review is saying that it is really bad and that the main character is very unlikable.

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/rev...lose-jgiro.php

Pacifist? What normal kid at the age of 9 would claim that of himself ?

Looks like "August Rush" and that was terrible. I agree that it does look like a button-pushing-cliche type of drama but I'll watch it eventually. I'd hate to see the use of 9/11 as a cheap bait for tear-jerking.

i dunno. It just felt contrived. Like the other poster said, you were told when to laugh, when to cry, when to cheer, when to turn to mush....etc.

Wanna know a good modern day fairytale? Stardust.

Ouch, I've rather stayed "ignorant" .

It certainly has its gut-wrenching moment (that old fashioned telephone answering machine). Yes, the kid was annoying until the last fifth of the film. Since I knew nothing about the book, after couple humiliating losses the Knicks suffered, I was in the mood for this movie (how bad can things get).

Remember where is Waldo? It's a decent mystery.

I would also recommend this for those who suffered losses and see how others (young and not-so-young) dealt with their "recovery" or acceptance. The main star is the kid, not the parents. Max is a classic.

Surprisingly, I found the PQ was better than MI-4 in SD format.

Worth a rental.

agreed. well worth watching. my teenage son's favorite movie from last year.

i know some say it's cloying and meant to manipulate your emotions, but i think the descendants is even more guilty of that.

The descendants did not work for me other than the gorgeous locale, hardly Oscar worthy. Actually I preferred George in the American better.

I found this one is far more entriguing than most of the movies I saw this year, and that is at least about three per week.

Snoozer, doozer, those are the words that conjure up when I watched this much ado about zilch. I'm not wasting another second writing about this.