Blog post 5: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has already been made into a film, but I haven't seen it, so I'm going to address this post as if a movie hadn't been made. Any filmmaker would have a few difficulties capturing the unique elements in this book. For example, there are two solid pages of numbers when Oskar's grandfather asks what the sum of his life is. That's an interesting way to prove a point, but it would be hard to put into the film. It would also be hard to show the part where the text gets smaller and smaller until the words are blurred together and illegible, eventually blending into an almost entirely black page. It's things like that that make the book so interesting, but I feel like they would be difficult to transfer to the big screen. The plot wouldn't have to change if these things weren't incorporated, but it would take away from the unique aspects of the book.

One specific scene that needs to be kept is (spoiler!) one of the final scenes, where Oskar discovers that the key belongs to a banker whose father passed away and left the key in a vase, which the banker then sold to Thomas Schell. This is important for obvious reasons; without it, nobody would know what they key was for, and since Oskar spends the better part of the book searching for its lock, it wouldn't make sense to leave viewers hanging.

Another scene that I have deemed important is the "Hamlet" scene, where Oskar imagines what the play would be like if he had spoken his mind. This scene is essential to the film because it adds comic relief, and also gives viewers a glimpse into Oskar's mind, and how funny he is - unintentionally, of course.

The third scene that should be kept in the movie is the scene where Oskar's grandfather and grandmother first meet. Viewers need to be introduced to the "yes" and "no" tattoos and the grandfather's hands, and his notebook/means of communication. This scene also establishes the relationship between the two, and foreshadows how difficult things will be down the road.

If I had to cut two scenes from the book in order to create a great movie,  I would probably cut the scene where Oskar's mom tells him the story of the sixth borough and the scene where Jimmy Snyder and his friends make fun of Oskar at recess. While I do believe they contribute to the book, I don't see their contributions as major; meaning, if these scenes were cut, the story would still make sense and the important messages would still be conveyed.