Movie Versus Book: Oscar Nominee 'Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close'

For each of this year's five Academy Award-nominated films that began as paperbound stories, we've found one reviewer who has only read the book, and one reviewer who has only seen the movie. We asked them about characters, plot points and dramatic moments to see how one differs from the other, and to try and ascertain which is more worthy of your time.

Yesterday we examined George Clooney's take on Matt King from "The Descendants," and Tuesday we put Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" head-to-head with the Brad Pitt blockbuster. Today, we'll take a look at "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book and the movie both involve a young boy, Erik, whose father died in the September 11 attacks. As part of his grieving process, he embarks on a scavenger hunt to uncover his father and his family's past.

Our Moviefone team gave the film a score of 2 out of 5, whereas our reader, Joy Resmovits, gave the book a 4.

As their responses and this clever infographic show, the difference in scores may be in part due to the movie's sentimental tone (Moviefone says it's strictly for "grief junkies"). The book, on the other hand, gives Oskar's story context by interlacing it with scenes from his grandparent's struggle to cope with the Dresden bombing during World War II.

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Comments

[stixaz]

10:47 AM on 02/24/2012

I've decided to not see this movie because I really loved the book. I would say the storyline of the grandmother/grandfather was a huge part of the book as well.

[leskataus]

12:38 AM on 02/27/2012

The movie barely mentions the grandfather's experiences during WWII.

[The Grouch]

09:28 PM on 02/23/2012

I used to think that the book is always better than the movie. Not anymore. Recently, I made the mistake of reading "The Thing." Dreadful book. Yes, even the 2011 Hollywood remake is better.