--- title: "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" year: 2011 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close" fi1m_score: 41 critics_score: 44 critics_reviews: 17 published: "2026-09-20T07:36:59.047773+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T07:36:59.642233+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) Directed by Stephen Daldry · 2h 09m · MPA PG-13 · Drama **Fi1m score: 41** · Critics 44 from 17 reviews *In a sentence:* A small boy tries every lock in New York and the film cries before he does > Stephen Daldry has made a handsome, carefully acted film about a boy’s grief that never stops telling you what to feel, and the more it pushes the less we felt. Thomas Horn and Max von Sydow are good; the film around them is not. ## Synopsis New York, a year after 11 September 2001. Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is a small, exacting boy whose father Thomas (Tom Hanks) died in the World Trade Center, on what Oskar calls the worst day. His mother Linda (Sandra Bullock) cannot get near him. In his father’s wardrobe, Oskar knocks a blue vase to the floor and finds inside it an envelope marked Black, and in the envelope a key. Convinced it is a last puzzle his father set him, he decides to visit every person named Black in the five boroughs and try the key in their locks, beginning with Abby Black (Viola Davis). He carries a tambourine to steady his nerves and keeps hidden the answering-machine messages his father left that morning. ## Review Stephen Daldry’s film of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel arrived with a promise on its poster: that it was not a story about 11 September but a story about every day after. That describes Eric Roth’s screenplay better than the finished film, which puts the towers on screen early and returns to them whenever it needs help. Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) finds a key in his dead father’s wardrobe and decides that somewhere in New York there is a lock that will explain everything. It is a good idea for a children’s book, and the film runs 129 minutes. Horn is the reason to keep watching. He plays Oskar as a small, brisk, literal boy who lists what frightens him, bridges, the subway, loud noises, and rattles a tambourine at his hip to keep the panic down. The trouble is that Roth gives him a voiceover explaining each thing he does as he does it, the key, the search, the lie he tells his mother each morning, so a character built on not saying things spends two hours saying them. Tom Hanks, in flashback, is easy and warm as the father who sets him expeditions in Central Park, and the film is at its best when the two of them are talking. We were got at once. Oskar has kept the answering machine from the morning his father died, with the messages Thomas left from the tower, and he plays them alone. Hanks’s voice on the tape is level and ordinary, saying he is fine. Horn’s face does nothing at all. Alexandre Desplat’s score, for once, stays out. It moved us more than we expected, and then we noticed the film had built its whole plot around that machine and around what it is holding back from us, and the feeling soured into resentment. It is the only scene in the film that trusts the tape to do the work. Everywhere else it pushes. Desplat’s piano and strings sit under nearly every scene and swell a bar before anyone says anything sad, so we are ready. Chris Menges lights New York in a soft, clean, even glow, and every door Oskar knocks on across the five boroughs opens onto a stranger who is kind to him. Claire Simpson cuts the visits into montages of thresholds and faces until the Blacks of New York become a slideshow of good people. K.K. Barrett gives the Schells a flat full of books and warm wood, with the father’s wardrobe kept like a shrine. It is all handsome. The supporting cast is better than its parts. Viola Davis, as Abby Black, cries in a doorway while a marriage ends in the next room, a minute of adult mess the film hurries past. Max von Sydow plays a lodger in Oskar’s grandmother’s flat who does not speak, answers with a notepad and with Yes and No inked on his palms, and joins the search; it is the one device the film leaves alone, and he is dry and sad and funny in it. Jeffrey Wright arrives late and is good in a scene we will not describe. Sandra Bullock spends most of the film at the edge of the frame as a mother who cannot reach her son, then is handed its best scene, which we also will not describe. She plays it small. Daldry made [*Billy Elliot*](https://film.one/film/billy-elliot) in 2000, and it is the fair comparison: a boy in a house where a parent has gone. There the loss was a fact the boy lived around while he did something else. Here it is a project, with a map, a list and a rule for every borough, and every clue Oskar finds is another scene of him being clever rather than sad. Most critics were as unpersuaded as we were; those who were moved were moved by Horn, and we see why. It is long for a search with one answer. The 12A is right: there is nothing here a twelve-year-old cannot watch, and a fair amount one might see through. If you want to be made to cry on a wet Sunday afternoon it will do that, because it has been built for nothing else. We can see who it was made for, and they were owed something less tidy. *Fi1m score 41, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics do not like this film, and many dislike it a good deal. Ten of seventeen reviews are negative, and the complaint is much the same each time: Daldry’s adaptation treats grief after the 9/11 attacks as an occasion for sentiment rather than reflection, and the boy’s quest across New York with a key strikes them as contrived and cute. Where there is praise, it lands on the cast. Thomas Horn’s performance as Oskar is singled out by several reviews as natural and matter-of-fact, and Max von Sydow and Sandra Bullock are credited with steadying the supporting scenes. The spread is wide. The Los Angeles Times and The Wrap find the film moving and its handling of loss humane; The AV Club and The Guardian consider it preposterous and mawkish, and the former gives it a failing grade. Even admirers concede Daldry lays the sentiment on thick, and Horn divides opinion, with some finding his idiosyncrasies grating rather than endearing. ### Reviews we read (17) - **Los Angeles Times**, Betsy Sharkey (80/100, inferred): Daldry sensitively adapts the story through a precocious boy's eyes, balancing sentiment and substance while exploring grief and healing on a human level. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-dec-23-la-et-extremely-loud-20111223-story.html) - **Film Comment**, Nicolas Rapold (70/100, inferred): The film is a surprisingly engaging adaptation of the novel about a precocious boy dealing with his father's death in the 9/11 attacks. Its chief strength is the passionate portrayal by newcomer Thomas Horn as the boy Oskar. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-review/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (70/100, inferred): The film is an affecting, well-acted tale of 9/11 trauma centered on a boy's quest to process his father's death. The standout element is the exceptional natural performance by young lead Thomas Horn. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-film-274943/) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (40/100, inferred): The movie treats 9/11 as kitsch rather than occasion for mourning or reflection, turning the boy's quest into a sentimental journey through New York aided by its people. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/movies/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-with-tom-hanks-review.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (30/100, inferred): The film is contrivance and folderol built around a boy's improbable quest across New York with a key and tambourine. It fails to provide plausible or meaningful catharsis for 9/11. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-2012) - **Screen Daily** (30/100, inferred): The film is seen as a preening and contrived exercise in manipulative poignancy, overly mannered despite skilled craft and strong supporting performances, existing mainly to elicit feelings rather than tell a story. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close/5035910.article) - **Time Out**, Ben Walters (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the adaptation overly sentimental and platitudinous in its account of trauma, offering a cutesy fantasy of New York rather than a genuine exploration of communication and loss. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/extremely-loud-incredibly-close) - **Slant Magazine**, R. Kurt Osenlund (1/4): The film is a needlessly self-important and hugely artificial post-9/11 weepie that buries its soul beneath pretentious rubble. The critic singles out the grating, contrived idiosyncrasies of the child protagonist and the shameless, predestined melodrama for complaint. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (1/5): The critic finds the film a contrived and preposterous mawkish fantasy that belittles the impact of 9/11 through its sentimental treatment of the boy's quest. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/16/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-review) - **Evening Standard** (15/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a shameless tearjerker that relentlessly ratchets up the pathos around a young boy's 9/11-related quest but ultimately leaves the viewer unmoved and resistant. It singles out the manipulative emotional design, over-cute elements, and lack of genuine engagement with its subject for complaint. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-review-7446891.html) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (F): The adaptation is an appalling, nauseatingly precious treatment of 9/11 grief that feels both too literary and too sentimental. The critic singles out the cloying conceit of the boy's quest and the overly tasteful yet manipulative direction and score for complaint. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-1798170983) - **The Wrap**, Leah Rozen (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a moving drama about one boy's efforts to make sense of his father's death in the 9/11 attacks, praising the streamlined adaptation from the novel and strong performances, particularly the eccentric but effective work by newcomer Thomas Horn along with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Max von Sydow. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/review-extremely-loud-and-incredibly-healing-33878/) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B): The critic finds the film ultimately moving thanks to Daldry's direction, which makes the odd elements and 9/11 backdrop work together for an emotional impact, despite an off-putting child performance initially. [Read](https://collider.com/extremly-loud-incredibly-close-review/) - **Den of Geek**, Carley Tauchert (3/5): The beautifully shot and acted drama hits emotions repeatedly but lacks soul in addressing the tragic subject. It is a good, solid drama that honors the grief process but leaves one thinking more about real events than the fictional characters. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-review/) - **Digital Spy**, Stella Papamichael (3/5): Daldry lays it on thick with sentiment but the newcomer Thomas Horn provides a saving grace with his matter-of-fact performance that helps cut through the saccharine. The journey is engaging but long, uneven, and undermined by overly tidy resolutions. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a364825/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Donald Munro (40/100, inferred): The critic finds a good film buried under excessive sentiment, self-indulgence, and unnecessary length. They single out the strong performances by Max von Sydow and Sandra Bullock for praise, while noting the contrived plot and stereotypical portrayal of the protagonist. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-film-review-by-donald-munro) - **Paste**, Ani Vrabel (5.8): The film relies too heavily on sentimentality about 9/11 and loss without sufficient character development or storytelling merit, resulting in a disappointing adaptation that feels annoying rather than endearing. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close) ## Details - **Director:** Stephen Daldry - **Director:** Stephen Daldry - **Screenplay:** Eric Roth - **Novel:** Jonathan Safran Foer - **Cinematography:** Chris Menges - **Editor:** Claire Simpson - **Music:** Alexandre Desplat - **Production design:** K.K. Barrett - **Costume design:** Ann Roth - **Producer:** Scott Rudin - **Cast:** Tom Hanks as Thomas Schell; Sandra Bullock as Linda Schell; Thomas Horn as Oskar Schell; Viola Davis as Abby Black; John Goodman as Stan the Doorman; Jeffrey Wright as William Black; Zoe Caldwell as Oskar's Grandmother; Max von Sydow as The Renter - **Runtime:** 2h 09m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 20 January 2012 - **Genres:** Drama - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2011) - **Budget:** $40 million - **Box office:** $55 million ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: rent $2.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $7.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, PT, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2012: Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Ponette* (1996): A four-year-old grieves her mother, in French, with no quest and no score pushing you - *Billy Elliot* (2000), Fi1m 81: Daldry’s earlier boy with a dead parent, who dances instead of making lists — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/billy-elliot.md) - *United 93* (2006), Fi1m 88: The same day, told flat and in real time, and far harder to shake — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/united-93.md) - *A Monster Calls* (2016): Another boy, another dying parent, and a fantasy device that earns its tears - *The Kid with a Bike* (2011): A Belgian boy hunts for his father across a town; the Dardennes never raise their voices --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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