Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close & Sherlock
Tonight I was blackmailed into seeing Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close at our local discount movie theater. Well, I say “blackmailed,” when in fact I mean that I made a deal with my friends where we would all go see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for the third time (don’t judge; I love that freakin’ hurt/comfort slash-tastic movie) if we also bought tickets to see the later showing of Extremely Poorly Named Movie No One Can Remember That Coincidentally Also Sounds Dumb When Said Aloud.
To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. And now allow me to tie everything back to Sherlock, as is my habit recently. :)
More than a decade later, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011, can still inspire a ton of emotions in Americans and others affected by the tragedy: fear, pride, confusion, disgust, patriotism, anger, sadness, etc. etc. I went into the theater irritated that a 9/11 movie had been made at all: I felt it was too soon, too unnecessary, too obviously tailored to tug at the heartstrings and recreate all those complicated feelings people who lived through it had experienced.
Well, I needn’t have bothered posing all those pre-emptive objections. This movie is not about 9/11 at all.
That’s not to say it doesn’t benefit from the events of 9/11 being a backdrop, but this is not in the slightest a disaster movie or something designed to instill a sense of patriotism in its viewers. No, this movie is about a boy’s family trying to deal with his borderline Asperger’s syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder and grief/guilt after his father’s death. But what really interested me is how alike the protagonist is to BBC’s Sherlock, so much so that halfway through I just started seeing this film as an AU in which Sherlock grows up in America and deals with 9/11.
The debate over how, exactly, to define someone like Sherlock is a complicated one with no real answer. Anderson calls him a psychopath, Sherlock calls himself a high-functioning sociopath (neither of which I believe), and John suggests to Lestrade that Sherlock has Asperger’s. Of the three, I think John is the closest, but I don’t write for the BBC or have a degree in psychology. The protagonist in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell, takes personality tests for Asperger’s, but the results are inconclusive.
My Oskar-is-little!Sherlock theory has plenty of holes and imperfections, but here are the similarities I noticed:
-Both are extremely detail-oriented, very bright, and very single-mindedly dedicated to cases/puzzles/projects that someone else has to bring them. (In EL&IC, it’s Oskar’s father and the plot device of “notstop looking”; in Sherlock, it’s his clients-“I need a case!”)
-They can rattle off factoids/deductions like no one’s business.
-Both thrive on legwork (the anti-Mycroft factor) and learn all the dingy corners in their respective huge cities (New York and London) very well. (They both also have homeless networks, though Oskar’s is obviously less developed than Sherlock’s.)
-Everyone who gets to know both characters quickly realizes that they need mental stimulation and strives to keep their minds as occupied as possible. This is canon in EL&IC (the dad, the grandmother, the mom, and the Renter all do this for Oskar) but possibly somewhat fanon in Sherlock, though I do believe Mycroft and Lestrade, at least, are trying.
-Both have habits of turning to self-destruction when bored or without stimulation.
-Both have fits of depression or “black moods” that overtake them and leave them too overwhelmed to do much of anything. In Oskar’s case this is because he is actually suffering from depression or PTSD or both, while in Sherlock’s case he’s just bored, but they both act similar, and everyone knows to walk on eggshells around them when they’re in this state.
-Both have trouble shutting out the outside world (hence the title of “extremely loud and incredibly close”), and at times they become overwhelmed from processing too much extraneous information.
-They both find great solace in music-Oskar in the tambourine and Sherlock in his violin-and at times of stress they turn to their instruments as kind of tics/psuedo-weapons against intruding thoughts or people.
-Both have a fixation on death and dying (though in Oskar’s case this might not be permanent).
-Neither is great at understanding or displaying human emotion. Oskar tells his mother at point blank he wishes she were dead instead of his father, and she knows he means it. Sherlock doesn’t get why the lady in pink might be affected years later by her baby being dead.
-They both have other people acting as their moral compasses. Oskar and his mother have a version of Sherlock and John’s “Not good?”/“Bit not good, yeah.” speech. Oskar calls his mother an absent parent, and she tells him without judgment or inflection, “That was mean.” He asks, “Which part?” and she says, “All of it.”
-Both can rub people the wrong way but also inspire intense protectiveness in those who know them well (all of Oskar’s family, and Mycroft + all of Sherlock’s “family”).
-Even though they don’t realize it at first, they both desperately need John Watsons (or the Renter character in EL&IC). They can get around better, they think better, and their work is completed more quickly with their trusty sidekicks who are astonished at their single-minded determination. Incidentally, both John and the Renter are also suffering from war-induced PTSD, which leaves both with psychosomatic injuries (John’s limp and the Renter’s refusal to speak).
Like I said, the comparisons are not perfect. Oskar is an only child, doesn’t deduce like Sherlock, and comes off as more emotional; I highly doubt anyone would accuse him of being a psychopath. Sherlock has Mycroft and is colder/actually a genius. But there were so many similarities that I had to mention them and encourage Sherlockians to go and rent the movie for a possible insight on what Sherlock’s childhood may have been like. :)
EDIT: If you are interested in Sherlock and autism, absolutely go check out this knowledgeable series of posts analyzing Sherlock’s canon behavior in the light of autism.
On a loosely related note, this movie cemented my belief that New York can completely stand in for London in CBS’s Elementary. (I’d already believed it with House, which is set in New Jersey, but now it’s clear that to me, the only thing needed to make a Sherlock Holmes adaptation work is Sherlock Holmes’ characterization.)
To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. And now allow me to tie everything back to Sherlock, as is my habit recently. :)
More than a decade later, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011, can still inspire a ton of emotions in Americans and others affected by the tragedy: fear, pride, confusion, disgust, patriotism, anger, sadness, etc. etc. I went into the theater irritated that a 9/11 movie had been made at all: I felt it was too soon, too unnecessary, too obviously tailored to tug at the heartstrings and recreate all those complicated feelings people who lived through it had experienced.
Well, I needn’t have bothered posing all those pre-emptive objections. This movie is not about 9/11 at all.
That’s not to say it doesn’t benefit from the events of 9/11 being a backdrop, but this is not in the slightest a disaster movie or something designed to instill a sense of patriotism in its viewers. No, this movie is about a boy’s family trying to deal with his borderline Asperger’s syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder and grief/guilt after his father’s death. But what really interested me is how alike the protagonist is to BBC’s Sherlock, so much so that halfway through I just started seeing this film as an AU in which Sherlock grows up in America and deals with 9/11.
The debate over how, exactly, to define someone like Sherlock is a complicated one with no real answer. Anderson calls him a psychopath, Sherlock calls himself a high-functioning sociopath (neither of which I believe), and John suggests to Lestrade that Sherlock has Asperger’s. Of the three, I think John is the closest, but I don’t write for the BBC or have a degree in psychology. The protagonist in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell, takes personality tests for Asperger’s, but the results are inconclusive.
My Oskar-is-little!Sherlock theory has plenty of holes and imperfections, but here are the similarities I noticed:
-Both are extremely detail-oriented, very bright, and very single-mindedly dedicated to cases/puzzles/projects that someone else has to bring them. (In EL&IC, it’s Oskar’s father and the plot device of “notstop looking”; in Sherlock, it’s his clients-“I need a case!”)
-They can rattle off factoids/deductions like no one’s business.
-Both thrive on legwork (the anti-Mycroft factor) and learn all the dingy corners in their respective huge cities (New York and London) very well. (They both also have homeless networks, though Oskar’s is obviously less developed than Sherlock’s.)
-Everyone who gets to know both characters quickly realizes that they need mental stimulation and strives to keep their minds as occupied as possible. This is canon in EL&IC (the dad, the grandmother, the mom, and the Renter all do this for Oskar) but possibly somewhat fanon in Sherlock, though I do believe Mycroft and Lestrade, at least, are trying.
-Both have habits of turning to self-destruction when bored or without stimulation.
-Both have fits of depression or “black moods” that overtake them and leave them too overwhelmed to do much of anything. In Oskar’s case this is because he is actually suffering from depression or PTSD or both, while in Sherlock’s case he’s just bored, but they both act similar, and everyone knows to walk on eggshells around them when they’re in this state.
-Both have trouble shutting out the outside world (hence the title of “extremely loud and incredibly close”), and at times they become overwhelmed from processing too much extraneous information.
-They both find great solace in music-Oskar in the tambourine and Sherlock in his violin-and at times of stress they turn to their instruments as kind of tics/psuedo-weapons against intruding thoughts or people.
-Both have a fixation on death and dying (though in Oskar’s case this might not be permanent).
-Neither is great at understanding or displaying human emotion. Oskar tells his mother at point blank he wishes she were dead instead of his father, and she knows he means it. Sherlock doesn’t get why the lady in pink might be affected years later by her baby being dead.
-They both have other people acting as their moral compasses. Oskar and his mother have a version of Sherlock and John’s “Not good?”/“Bit not good, yeah.” speech. Oskar calls his mother an absent parent, and she tells him without judgment or inflection, “That was mean.” He asks, “Which part?” and she says, “All of it.”
-Both can rub people the wrong way but also inspire intense protectiveness in those who know them well (all of Oskar’s family, and Mycroft + all of Sherlock’s “family”).
-Even though they don’t realize it at first, they both desperately need John Watsons (or the Renter character in EL&IC). They can get around better, they think better, and their work is completed more quickly with their trusty sidekicks who are astonished at their single-minded determination. Incidentally, both John and the Renter are also suffering from war-induced PTSD, which leaves both with psychosomatic injuries (John’s limp and the Renter’s refusal to speak).
Like I said, the comparisons are not perfect. Oskar is an only child, doesn’t deduce like Sherlock, and comes off as more emotional; I highly doubt anyone would accuse him of being a psychopath. Sherlock has Mycroft and is colder/actually a genius. But there were so many similarities that I had to mention them and encourage Sherlockians to go and rent the movie for a possible insight on what Sherlock’s childhood may have been like. :)
EDIT: If you are interested in Sherlock and autism, absolutely go check out this knowledgeable series of posts analyzing Sherlock’s canon behavior in the light of autism.
On a loosely related note, this movie cemented my belief that New York can completely stand in for London in CBS’s Elementary. (I’d already believed it with House, which is set in New Jersey, but now it’s clear that to me, the only thing needed to make a Sherlock Holmes adaptation work is Sherlock Holmes’ characterization.)