Not Approved

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Adapted from the acclaimed bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is a story that unfolds from inside the young mind of Oskar Schell, an inventive eleven year-old New Yorker whose discovery of a key in his deceased father's belongings sets him off on an urgent search across the city for the lock it will open. A year after his father died in the World Trade Center on what Oskar calls "The Worst Day," he is determined to keep his vital connection to the man who playfully cajoled him into confronting his wildest fears. Now, as Oskar crosses the five New York boroughs in quest of the missing lock - encountering an eclectic assortment of people who are each survivors in their own way - he begins to uncover unseen links to the father he misses, to the mother who seems so far away from him and to the whole noisy, dangerous, discombobulating world around him.
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Negative Rating
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SexLanguageViolenceDrugsNudityOther
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Positive Rating
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FaithIntegrity

Dove Review

What a powerful movie which moves the emotions and touches the senses in a way few films do. This is a movie which most people will relate to, to some degree, and in one way or another. It is regrettable that two crudities and strong utterances of language prevent us from awarding the movie our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal.

Tom Hanks lends his likable personality to the character of Thomas Schell, a jeweler who would have loved to have been a scientist. He spends as much time as he can with his eleven-year-old son Oskar (Thomas Horn), working on experiments together and sharing oxymorons with one another as they practice the martial arts together.

The tragedy of 9/11 strikes the family and both Oskar and his mother Linda (Sandra Bullock) deal with the pain and grief in trying to make sense out of the horrible event because, as Linda Schell says, “You can’t make sense out of this.” Oskar finds a key his father had hidden in a vase and the small yellow envelope holding the key says “Black” on the back. He becomes determined to search every family named Black in the surrounding five boroughs until he hunts down the mystery of the key. What will the key unlock and what was his Dad trying to say to him?

The movie contains some nice scenes of people reaching out to Oskar and comments like the one a character makes about people being more like letters and not numbers; because letters form words and stories and everyone has a story to share. It’s too bad we can’t award our Dove Seal to this sensitive and emotional film which will take viewers back to that period some ten years ago. But the language throws a monkey wrench into the mix and prevents us from being able to recommend this one for the family.

Dove Rating Details

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Faith

None

0
Integrity

An image of one of the Two Towers beginning to fall; fire and smoke; a young boy pinches himself and has marks on several areas of his front body; we learn a certain man lost his parents in an explosion at a bomb shelter;

0
Sex

None

3
Language

A Pig Latin expression like "Disshitastisuckufushmyb*lls"; or its meaning of "suck my b*lls"; another Pig Latin phrase which contains the words "F you"; G/OMG-2; A-1; S-1; "Retard" (half jokingly said to a doorman)-1

0
Violence

An image of one of the Two Towers beginning to fall; fire and smoke; a young boy pinches himself and has marks on several areas of his front body; we learn a certain man lost his parents in an explosion at a bomb shelter;

1
Drugs

A brief scene in a bar and man drinks.

1
Nudity

Boy's front chest and stomach seen.

2
Other

In a touching scene several people pray for Oskar and for his search for the lock which the key will match; a death and funeral and tears; a man's last messages to his family are heard on the voice answering machine; a boy tells several lies and realizes they are lies and admits some of them later on; a woman grieves as she is in a marriage ending in divorce.

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