Review by Matt Finley
"A lot of folks have an adverse reaction to assertive tearjerkers, but I think a little concerted emotional manipulation in film can be a good thing. After all, comedies depend on road-tested tactics - and the subversion thereof - to dead-center our funny bones. Why not allow for the same considered hand when it comes to the plucking of heart strings." I said this to myself as I tried to objectively evaluate Stephen Daldry’s (THE READER) EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE, a film that's plucking is more akin to two hours of Hendrix sawing away at your heart string with his teeth, and then lighting it on fire. Not even the real Hendrix though... Robot Hendrix. 9/11, autism, single motherhood - it's programmed to wail on the ticker, but despite all its classic emotional algorithms, the machine itself - the delivery device - is poorly assembled, unbearably clunky, and turned up to a deafeningly saccharine 11.
