![]() ![]() The most relevant symptom here is the fact that the young man fixates on a task and obsesses about it until completion, all the while rattling off thematically useful facts like some sort of latter-day Jonathan Lipnicki. The line gets a laugh, but the film leaves little doubt: Bullied by his peers and oblivious to the effect his actions have on others, Oskar has whatever form of fictionally skewed autism suits such gifted-outsider storytelling. Oskar acknowledges that he might have Asperger syndrome: “Test results were inconclusive,” he says. As played by “Jeopardy” Kids Week champion Thomas Horn, who also narrates, Oskar is bright for his age, but severely impaired when it comes to even the simplest social interactions. ![]() ![]() Thus, although Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock figure prominently in the film’s marketing campaign, auds hoping to see the two Oscar winners onscreen may be surprised and disappointed to find a story that instead focuses on their characters’ 11-year-old son, Oskar Schell. Daldry and producer Scott Rudin have limited their risk somewhat by adapting “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” from Jonathan Safran Foer’s generally well-received novel of the same name, which grapples with adult themes through the skewed understanding of a precocious young misfit. Because the wounds of 9/11 are still fresh for many, tackling the subject head-on requires a careful choice of material. ![]()
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