Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Daldry sensitively adapts the story through a precocious boy's eyes, balancing sentiment and substance while exploring grief and healing on a human level.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.