Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

In the opening shot of Stephen Daldry’s family drama we see what appears to be a human figure, falling gracefully in slow motion through a clear blue sky. It is an odd visual and a potentially mesmerising one… that is, until you realize a couple of scenes later this is actually a film about 9/11. Listen carefully and you can almost hear audiences around the world shift uncomfortably in their seats.

Now before carrying on further, there is an important issue that needs discussing: is it still too soon to be addressing so openly the subject of September 11^th in mainstream Hollywood cinema? Chances are that eleven years on most people would beg to differ, but it’s important to remember this is still a far more delicate issue for Manhattanites (who are likely to be offended by this review, in case they loved the film). So in answer to the previous question, films should not shy away from the subject at hand, as long as they do it with taste, respect and integrity. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is not one of those films.

Adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s book of the same name, Extremely Loud… focuses on eleven year-old Oskar Schell’s (Thomas Horn) difficult struggle to cope with the death of his father (Tom Hanks), whom he lost during the September 11^th attacks. A year later he accidentally stumbles upon a key among his father’s belongings. He has no idea to what it may open, the only clue being the word “Black” written on the back of the envelope in which he found it. Oskar then sets out on a personal odyssey around New York to find the person who knows what the key will unlock.

The material at Daldry’s disposal here is the stuff of great tragedy and to be fair, the British director does occasionally manage to recapture the anguish experienced by so many on that fateful day – the scene in which Oskar comes home to find his father’s final messages on the answer machine minutes before the World Trade Center collapses makes for unbearable viewing and is in itself a powerful moment from a cinematic point of view.

It’s when Oskar embarks on his quest to find the mythical keyhole that the film loses its dramatic punch and, bizarrely enough, starts playing out more like a modern day version of The Land Before Time. Like that milestone in prehistoric animation, the main protagonist is a naïve sprog who travels great distances to search for something that ultimately isn’t there, but ends up meeting an assortment of colourful characters along the way. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that by the time we reach the final scenes, Extremely Loud… feels like a load of predictable sentimental tosh.

But sentimentality doesn’t need to be a problem, when it can be warmly embraced if you believe and engage with a protagonist. Unfortunately Thomas Horn is a really bad actor. Yes, Oskar’s just a kid who may be affected by Aspergers, but he’s also an annoying kid you have to spend two hours and ten minutes with, which is no easy feat when Horn's acting consists of reciting his lines off by heart whilst staring blankly at his co-stars. Not since The Phantom Menace’s Jake Lloyd has a child actor been so extremely dull and incredibly frustrating.

2/5

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Will there ever be a decent Ghost Rider movie? Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine’s Spirit of Vengeance pulls off the unthinkable and makes Mark Steven Johnson’s 2007 mediocre effort look like comic book gold. Visually stunning though he may be, the Rider is easily Marvel’s most uncharismatic hero and Nicholas Cage’s laughable penchant for overacting sure doesn’t make him more palatable. The plot is so minimal it could be summed up in a text message, Ciaran Hinds makes for the most unthreatening comic book villain ever, while the action scenes are a loud, incomprehensible mess. Worth seeing? Hell no.   

1/5

The Vow

Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (Rachel McAdams) are the perfect couple. They enjoy the sort of idyllic, laidback marriage that is comprised of cool friends, blueberry pancakes and monthly skinny dips. But after a tragic car accident, Paige inadvertently loses her memory and struggles to recognize Leo as her husband, leaving the latter to resort to desperate measures to win back the love of his life.

Despite being inspired by true events, the premise for The Vow reads more like a modern day spin-off of The Notebook and like that film (which coincidentally also starred McAdams), it thinks it’s engaging with tear-jerking melodrama  when actually all it does is crank up the cheese to foul-smelling levels.

Need some examples? You know the disapproving in-laws who usually crop up in these kind of films and threaten to snatch their daughter away from the hapless male protagonist? Present and correct. You want a bit more queso with that? Then have your amnesiac character forget her husband yet fall for her back-stabbing weasel of an ex (Scott Speedman). If Robin Williams showed up as a beardy father figure, you’d have a roll of Double Gloucester on your hands.

Writer/Director Michael Sucsy lives up to his last name by delivering a film peppered with slow-motion hugs (no, really) and a script that is insipid, uninspired and just plain sucks (“I’m not the old me… I’m just me!”). It is lines like these that make you think less of The Notebook and more of 50 First Kisses.

But even this little clunker of a romantic drama is not without its saving grace, namely the central pairing of Tatum and McAdams. The latter is endearing and upsetting in equal measure as the amnesiac wife who is unwittingly throwing away her marriage before the doleful eyes of her husband. Tatum, on the other hand, is taking a well-earned break from playing soldiers and GI Joes, although he has yet to learn how to convey differing ranges of emotion, let alone deliver his lines without mumbling incomprehensibly. But while he may be fast becoming the new Keanu, he does share loveable chemistry with his female co-star: the skinny dipping scene in particular is the film’s most pure and touching moment.

Still, if you are in the mood for a movie about how loss of memory can tamper with the forces of true love, then download Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Seriously, you can do better than this.

2/5

Young Adult

We all knew one back in high school. You know, the popular girl blessed with stunning features, who also displayed a towering superiority complex and could make you feel miserable with one of her insensitive quips. Over the years we’ve grown accustomed to seeing her as the villain in countless teen movies (hello, Mean Girls), but now screenwriter Diablo Cody has thrown an intriguing proposition our way: fast forward a couple of decades after life in high school and tell the story from the popular girl’s perspective. And boy, it ain’t gonna be pretty.

Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is the gorgeous blonde who never abandoned her mean Prom Queen ways and is now making a living as a ghost writer on a series of young adult novels. When confronted with the news that her teenage sweetheart (Patrick Wilson) has just become a father, she makes the erroneous decision to return to her Minnesotan hometown and rescue him from blissful domesticity.

Diablo Cody has already established her talent for writing strong, unconventional female characters (she came up with Juno's vast repertoire of witticisms), but Mavis may well be her greatest creation to date and is impeccably brought to life by Charlize Theron. Clueless, narcissistic and with a tongue as venomous as a rattlesnake, everything about her feels ill-judged – although in an ashamedly entertaining sort of way. For instance, upon reencountering an old classmate (Patton Oswalt, the film’s moral compass) who was victim to a painful hate crime her instinctive reaction is to ask if his penis is still working. She may have left school a long time ago, but Mavis has hardly grown up.

But director Jason Reitman, who is on his fourth feature and has yet to make a bad film, is making a dark comedy here, meaning Young Adult has its fair share of grim undertones. Beneath all the make-up and glitzy façade, Mavis is clearly a woman unaware of her depression, her dependence on alcohol and, more crucially to her, how fast she is becoming obsolete as an author (she specialises in teen romances but none of them feature vampires).

More impressively, just when you think the narrative is set on a redemptive track, Reitman is not afraid to pull a sudden 180° turn – this is one of those films in which everyone involved may not have learnt their lesson by the end credits. It may be discomforting and will feel like too much of a downer to some viewers, but it’s an ending that, amid the public embarrassment and Mavis’ heartbreaking need for companionship, somehow rings true.

4/5

The Descendants

Movie star. Millionaire playboy. Dedicated philanthropist. And now, George Clooney can add another credential to his enviable list: goofy runner. In The Descendants Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor gives a fine performance as a disenfranchised father who struggles to reconnect with his two daughters, while the mother lays in a coma following a jet skiing accident. Alexander Payne’s film may be small in scope but is big on heart, as the protagonists reflect on loss through uneasy bonding and a series of exchanges that range from tender to laugh-out loud eccentric. The fact that the comedy and sentimentalism never feel forced is what makes The Descendants worth the watch.

4/5