The Other Feel-Bad Movie of Christmas

Every time the Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close trailer plays in the theater I have an equally incredible bad reaction. It’s like I’m on a tiny bus and I’m allergic to peanuts and everyone is eating peanuts all around me and the bus is bound for somewhere I didn’t want to go and maybe the driver is dead from all the peanuts and the bus is going off the road. In Delaware. I have had three of these rage-crying fits now, no joke, and I’m not sure I can keep going to the movie theaters until this thing is released and no longer being teased. The manipulation cuts like a knife! And this new trailer is actually more upsetting. (Mostly because it has bad voice-over.) Basically yes: “It looks like someone went and used 9/11 as a set-up to remake Pay It Forward.” The book was criticized in some quarters (some loved it, of course!) on those same terms, and I’m pretty sure its evolution at the hands of the writer who brought you Forrest Gump (and also a couple decent movies) is not going to improve matters. BUT IT’S OSCAR SEASON, so it SMELLS LIKE OSCAR. (Or Oskar, as the main character is called.) OSKAR SEASON! But this will at least go down in history as, somehow, the first time Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock have worked together. (Though he doesn’t get that much screen time DUE TO THE 9/11.) Hard to believe, right? I will let you try to prove me wrong, America’s Sweethearts, but the emotional exploitation is off the charts. Seems like Green Mile made a baby with Old Yeller and then the director decided to fly a plane into it.