Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

My father died at 9-11. After he died I wouldn't go into his room for a year because it was too hard and it made me want to cry. But one day, I put on heavy boots and went in his room anyway. I miss doing taekwondo with him because it always made me laugh. When I went into his closet, where his clothes and stuff were, I reached up to get his old camera. It spun around and dropped about a hundred stairs, and I broke a blue vase! Inside was a key in an envelope with black written on it and I knew that dad left something somewhere for me that the key opened and I had to find. So I take it to Walt, the locksmith. I give it to Stan, the doorman, who tells me keys can open anything. He gave me the phone book for all the five boroughs. I count there are 472 people with the last name Black. There are 216 addresses. Some of the Blacks live together, obviously. I calculated that if I go to 2 every Saturday plus holidays, minus my hamlet school plays, my minerals, coins, and comic convention, it's going to take me 3 years to go through all of them. But that's what I'm going to do! Go to every single person named Black and find out what the key fits and see what dad needed me to find. I made the very best possible plan but using the last four digits of each phone number, I divide the people by zones. I had to tell my mother another lie, because she wouldn't understand how I need to go out and find what the key fits and help me make sense of things that don't even make sense like him being killed in the building by people that didn't even know him at all! And I see some people who don't speak English, who are hiding, one black said that she spoke to God. If she spoke to God how come she didn't tell him not to kill her son or not to let people fly planes into buildings and maybe she spoke to a different God than them! And I met a man who was a woman who a man who was a woman all at the same time and he didn't want to get hurt because he/she was scared that she/he was so different. And I still wonder if she/he ever beat up himself, but what does it matter?  And I see Mr. Black who hasn't heard a sound in 24 years which I can understand because I miss dad's voice that much. Like when he would say, "are you up yet?" or... And I see the twin brothers who paint together and there's a shed that has to be clue, but it's just a shed! Another black drew the same drawing of the same person over and over and over again! Forest black, the doorman, was a school teacher in Russia but now says his brain is dying! Seamus Black who has a coin collection, but doesn't have enough money to eat everyday! You see Olive Black was a gate guard but didn't have the key to it which makes him feel like he's looking at a brick wall. And I feel like I'm looking at a brick wall because I tried the key in 148 different places, but the key didn't fit. And open anything it hasn't that dad needed me to find so I know that without him everything is going to be alright. And I still feel scared every time I go into a strange place. I'm so scared I have to hold myself around my waist or I think I'll just break all apart! But I never forget what I heard him tell mom about the sixth borough. That if things were easy to find. And I'm so scared every time I leave home. Every time I hear a door open. And I don't know a single thing that I didn't know when I started! It's these times I miss my dad more than ever even if this whole thing is to stop missing him at all! It hurts too much. Sometimes I'm afraid I'll do something very bad. (Oskar Schell)

Sekali tarikan nafas. Huff. It hurts too much. It is, boy.

Oskar Schell, dipaksa untuk menerima bahwa ayahnya tak lagi ada di dunia dalam peristiwa 9/11, dalam waktu yang tak lebih lama daripada kecepatan cahaya. Sedih, marah, namun juga rasa bersalah: mengapa tak punya cukup keberanian untuk mengangkat sambungan ketika ayah bersuara untuk yang terakhir kalinya? Rasa yang berkecamuk sedemikian rupa, membuncah ruah, hingga mampu mendobrak rasa takut dalam dirinya. Menghadapi dunia, bis berkecepatan tinggi, lengkingan suara, kilatan cahaya, orang berlari di jalan terbuka, gonggongan anjing, decit engsel jembatan, dan akhirnya ia harus membunyikan tamborinnya untuk meredakan kepanikan.

Ia melawan dirinya. Memutuskan untuk melakukan pencarian yang panjang dan remang. Memulai perjalanan mencari jawaban atas pertanyaan yang lahir dari perasaan kehilangan-ayah-yang-sangat-amat: kunci apakah ini? Terletak di dasar sebuah vas biru yang tak sengaja jatuh, sebuah kunci menjadi titik tolak. Bertanya kepada ahlinya, membuka buku cari-tahu-dengan-jarimu, membuat daftar 472 nama tuan, nona, atau nyonya Black, menyusun dan membagi lokasi berdasarkan 4 digit terakhir nomor telepon rumah, melingkari peta berdasarkan zona, hingga menghitung jumlah hari yang dibutuhkan. Dan ia melangkah, tak sendiri. Ditemani kakek yang memilih untuk diam seribu bahasa dan menggunakan tulisan untuk berbicara. Diulang, tak sendiri. Karena ternyata sang bunda pun diam-diam ‘menemani’ Oskar dengan cara yang ah-luar-biasa.

Film ini diangkat dari novel Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated), disutradarai Stephen Daldry, yang sekali lagi mampu mencuri hati saya setelah Billy Elliot. Daldry mampu menggambarkan emosi Oskar dengan sangat gamblang sekaligus menawan. Peran dan penggambaran interaksi antar tokoh yang dijalin dengan sangat apik, membuat ide utama dari jalan cerita yang berupa pencarian menjadi kuat sekaligus tak berdiri sendiri. Ambil saja satu adegan manis. Ketika Oskar beradu kata dengan sang bunda, lalu ia membanting pintu, pelan-pelan berlutut, lalu berbisik, “I love you” kepada ibunya yang berada di sisi sebelah sana.

Sepanjang film, dialog berupa monolog yang disertai dengan ekspresi dan gestur yang menguatkan, sukses membuat ikut 'merasa'. Kecuali jika anda menahan emosi atas nama maskulinitas, itu lain cerita.