Do You Really Want To Relive 9/11 From A Child’s Perspective On Christmas?

Jonathan Safran Foer‘s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, has been adapted into a film starring Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks. The story concerns a little boy whose father is killed in the 9/11 attacks and the child becomes convinced that his father has left him one last message before dying. Between those details, the footage of Sandra Bullock turning to see the burning towers, and the flashes of flying paper through NYC, I will not be running out to see this flick — especially not on Christmas Day, the film’s slated release date.

I realize that we’ve now reached 10 years since the attacks, but a part of me still doesn’t want to see them in cinema. Documentary films and television programs don’t bother me, but I’m still made uncomfortable by seeing creative license being taken with September 11th, and I’m not sure why. The very moment I learn that a fictitious plot centers around 9/11 or grazes against the attack in anyway, I have a very visceral reaction that hinders me from developing any further interest in the film.

Perhaps it’s because of that news footage that was played over and over again for months of the towers collapsing. I feel like I spent the better half of ninth grade watching those images on loop from morning and until night. So much so, that I’m in no hurry to see them again. Every time I see a depiction of the burning towers, I feel like I’m sitting on the floor of my living room again asking my father to explain what was going to happen next. Seeing the fire and the New Yorkers covered in ashes reminds me of being young and scared, a combination that is reflected once again in this little boy you’ll see in the trailer below.

I very much enjoy Foer’s books and consider him to be a very talented writer. And while I’m not opposed to picking up his book on a child’s interpretation of the attacks, I’m personally not ready to see it up on the  big screen.

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