Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Stephen Daldry, 2011)

Based on Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling novel, this retains the bones of the story but replaces the flesh with blancmange. It's not that the lead, playing the quasi-autistic nine-year-old who, unable to accept the death of his father in the 9/11 attack, goes on an obsessive treasure hunt to find some hidden remainder of him, is a bad actor per se, but when you're exposed to him on screen rather than paper, his shrill and mechanical tone does not take long to start grating. Neither does having Sandra Bullock as the weepy mother help matters, which then makes relegating the estimable Max Von Sydow to a mute role a criminal waste of resources. It's not without certain finesses and subtleties, but ultimately wallows far too much in its cuteness and pathos to be wholly digestible.

5/10