Coming off its surprise nomination for Best Picture, EL&LC has been a hot topic lately as it was left off nearly every other critics award show so far. After seeing the film, I can safely say the Oscars got it absolutely wrong. EL&IC is predictable, cheap, frustrating, and way too long. The film follows a young boy afflicted by Aspberger's syndrome, whose father is killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. The relationship with his father seemed to be the thing keeping his syndrome in check, however the boy becomes unbalanced after losing his father.When he finds a key in his fathers closet, he decides that this must have been a last mission his father left him, and he sets out to find the lock the key belongs to. The rest of the movie is the boy trying to solve this mystery, being mean to his mother, and reminiscing about his father. The movie does pick up about half way through when the boy meets the man who rents a room from the boys grandmother. The man is known simply as "the renter" and is an elderly mute man. The scenes between the two are funny and touching, but don't last long or do enough to pull the movie from the miserable tone it sets early. EL&IC tries hard to be touching and poignant, but instead relies on 9/11 for its backdrop and hopes that's enough for people to say the film made them cry. It steals its most emotional moments from Saving Private Ryan, Big Fish, and......Mercury Rising? The saving grace of the film are some of the performances, while annoying and utterly unlikable, Thomas Horn plays the main child with a feat of acting some of the best actors could not accomplish. Sandra Bullock and Max Von Sydow also give great supporting performances. I give EL&IC 4 Ninja stars, and probably would have given it less if it wasn't better than Midnight in Paris.
-Maximus
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