Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close just doesn't seen to have any point, and is sentimental and banal as well as very, very long.

Daldry delivers a surprisingly engaging adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's stridently voiced novel about a precocious boy dealing with the death of his father in the terror attacks.

In the end, the movie is about healing and coming to understand that some things can't be explained.

While the subject matter is harrowing and resonates on its own, the film’s depiction of such tragedy as a narrative plot point feels emotionally manipulative.