Proses produksi mengambil tempat di New York City. (ELIC) dirilis secara terbatas di Amerika Serikat pada tanggal 25 Desember2011. Dan dirilis secara internasional pada 20 Januari2012. Film ini masuk nominasi Academy Award untuk kategori gambar terbaik dan pemeran pendukung terbaik (Max von Sydow).
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ELIC bercerita tentang bocah malang bernama Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), yang sudah satu tahun kehilangan sang ayah (Tom Hanks) sejak peristiwa tergelap dalam sejarah Amerika Serikat yang kemudian dikenal dengan sebutan 'Black September'. Karena terlalu banyak kenangan yang ditinggalkan ayahnya, Oskar menjadi pribadi yang tertutup. Hingga hubungan dengan sang ibu, Laura (Sandra Bullock), pun merenggang.
Sampai pada suatu hari bocah berumur 9 tahun ini menemukan kunci misterius dalam sebuah amplop peninggalan sang ayah, yang kemudian membawanya bertualang mengelilingi New York. Di kota tersebut, Oskar berusaha mencari sisa-sisa kenangan ayahnya dengan harapan ia meraih kembali semangat hidup yang dulu pernah dimilikinya ketika ayahnya masih hidup.
Film yang diadaptasi dari novel berjudul sama karya Jonathan Safran Foer ini disutradarai oleh Stephen Daldry yang sebelumnya angkat nama lewat The Hours, The Reader, dan Billi Eliot. KIsah yang mengangkat kedekatan antara anak yang menderita sindrom asperger dan ayahnya ini mendapat nominasi best motion picture of the year dan best performance by an actor in a supporting role (Max Von Sydow) dalam ajang Oscar meski pada akhirnya tak memenangkan satupun.[2][3][3][4][5][6][7][8][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Before the film's release, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was expected to be a major contender at the 84th Academy Awards (Stephen Daldry's previous two films had garnered Best Picture nominations). However, due to the film's polarizing reception and being ignored by most of the Critics Groups Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, it was no longer deemed as a major contender.[16] Nevertheless, the film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor. Critics and audiences criticized the film's nomination for Best Picture, with some calling the film one of the worst Best Picture nominees ever.[17] It is the only widely reviewed film on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with a "rotten" rating to receive a Best Picture nomination.[18] Chris Krapek of The Huffington Post wrote very negatively about the film's nomination, calling the film "not only the worst reviewed Best Picture nominee of the last 10 years, [but] easily the worst film of 2011".[19]Paste Magazine's Adam Vitcavage called the film's consensus for a Best Picture nominee "certainly the worst for at least 28 years",[20] and David Gritten of The Telegraph calls the nomination "mysterious".[21]
Many critics have blamed the new Best Picture rules for the nomination. John Young at Entertainment Weekly says that when it comes to the new rules, "it's better to be loved by a small and passionate group instead of liked by a much larger group",[22] and Jen Chaney at The Washington Post, believes that, "the Academy should've just stuck to the 10 rule so that films like Dragon Tattoo or Harry Potter could've joined the other worthy contenders, because if you’re going to create a bunch of drama around the number of nominees and then come up one shy of what has become the typical total, that just feels like a letdown."[23]The Week writes that the new rules are a failure, as it lets "smaller, divisive movies that the Academy had hoped to weed out, like Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in, but prevents critically-praised crowd pleasers like Bridesmaids and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo from being nominated."[24]
Not all critics were negative about the nomination. Tom O'Neil, a former L.A. Times critic, analyzed the film's few nominations in other awards and its polarizing reaction from critics stating: "This is a movie that we unwisely wrote off, but we did it because we believed the critics. This movie delivers. It is a superb motion picture. It is moving, it is relevant to our time, it is extremely well made."[25]
