Extremely Loud And Incredibly Miserable

Remember how excited we were about the first trailer for Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close? If it helps jog your memory, try humming U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name and picture a young fatherless boy running around Ground Zero. Crying yet? YOU WILL BE.

Roll the trailer.

See? See how much sadder it is than the first one? First of all, we get to see a little bit more of Sandra Bullock, looking miserably at the burning towers of the World Trade Centre. And she whimpers into the phone quite convincingly as well. Secondly, we learn that Tom Hanks actually DIES in the film. Tom Hanks. Woody the Cowboy. Forrest Gump. DEAD! And, thirdly, we see a little boy drop to his knees clutching a phone in time to a stroke of dramatic music…

Which has led us to believe that Extremely Loud could possibly not be as good as we’d initially hoped for. The novel of the same name dealt with subtlety and realistic misery; this big budget Hollywood flick, on the other hand, looks like it could be squeezing every last tear (and penny) out of audiences by adopting all the stereotypical tricks of the weepy trade. Misery does equal Oscar nominations, after all.

Maybe it’s just a bad trailer. Maybe. All we can say for sure is that we preferred the more ambiguous preview of Max von Sydow running at full-pelt through the grey streets of New York.

Will you be going to see Extremely Loud when it hits cinemas next February? Why?

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