6. Thomas Horn. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)
An extremely controversial choice Im sure, considering the amount of people that hate and despise this movie (despite being nominated for best film) but hear me out. I watched this movie after all its bad press and I honestly expected to hate it, despite enjoying the few trailers for it I had seen. I also love Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and the films wonderful director Stephen Dauldry but still, everyone had told me it was crap so I was expecting crap. But honestly, honestly I really enjoyed the film and hey, enough respected people must have to make it a best picture nominee right? Despite enjoying the film (I never read the book but never compare a book to a film- they are entirely different things) I dont think its the greatest film ever, nor do I really think its good enough to be a best picture nominee, but it's in the ball park. Surprisingly also, I actually think the Academy Award winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock dont really give very good performances. This leads me to Thomas Horn, the central actor of the film. The character this film belongs to. Thomas Horns performance blew me away it blew my mind. It was great. And if you dont think so, please, please, please, Id like to know why I am wrong. Emotional, compelling, engrossing Thomas, who was only 13 when this film was released, had to portray all the emotions on the spectrum for this performance. Considering the 9-11 subject matter, arguably it was very easy for this film to be highly emotional, but Thomas really made me understand the horrors of that day from a different perspective. Not an easy task for a 13 year old. This was undoubtedly a highly mature and considered performance. Added to that the sheer amount of complicated, fast paced lines he had to learn (this was no short film either and he pretty much was talking throughout), this alone was enough to get him a best supporting actor nomination no?... Well, clearly it wasnt. Although he was the best part of the film, the well-respected actor Max Von Snow got nominated instead. Max Von Snow, though not terrible in the film, had a very, very easy task to play a mute, and without a shadow of doubt in my mind, young Thomas outperformed Max in every respect. Many of you were probably annoyed by his performance, or were pleading for him to shut up at the hour mark but regardless of whether or not he was irritating, you cant argue the performance was any less than spectacular can you. Can you? Still, he was better than that boy in Hugo wasn't he? Wasn't he?