Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

This is another one of those movies that are based on books. And I don’t quite know if the story plays out well enough on the big screen as on the pages as I haven’t read the actual novel. Let’s face it. The original books are always so much better than the movies based on the same books. At least I think they are. Anyway, this movie scored well.

There was quite a star-studded cast with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock playing the parents. But it is Thomas Horn who plays the lead character here, Oskar Schell, a nine-year old boy. The story is intriguing and uplifting in quite a few places. Oskar’s dad dies in the World Trade Center on September 11^th, 2011. The two were quite close and needless to say, Oskar finds it pretty hard to let go. He stumbles upon a key in his father’s closet and sets out to find the lock the key fits into. It becomes a reconnaissance expedition for Oskar, just as the many he had experienced with his father when he had been alive. And so the story unfolds from there. And a pretty good one, it was.    

 

How I Met Your Mother (Season 7-Episode 19)

Barney and Quinn play an elaborate prank on the rest. In all this, we saw an intervention (rather, a Quinntervention). And we had the two homeless ones, Ted and Robin, fighting over the same apartment. There was also the bro-oath (or broth as Barney would say it). The episode ends well for everyone as Barney and Quinn move in together. And Robin gets a promotion. But she and Ted still have the issues and things don’t seem to be returning to normal for them anytime soon. Sad part, that.

Grey’s Anatomy (Season 8-Episode 17)

The episode was titled “One Step Too Far”. It was a happening episode after a little break. Catherine Avery was visiting with a young Dr. Maura. While Maura ended up getting cozy with Jackson, his mother spent the day flirting with Richard Webber. Now, we know that Richard’s wife Adele is now living in a care facility and the former chief is a bit lonely these days.

Then there was the MerDer twist. Derek tried to convince Meredith to return to neuro and work with him again. He put her on his service but the day ended with both of them realizing that they cannot hope to work together without it having a straining effect on their relationship. In all of this, Lexie suffered her first major blow in a surgery when her patient ended up being unable to speak as she woke up.

Alex realized that he was being used by a very smitten intern, who happens to be his little patient’s mom. And as Christina continued suspecting Owen, she confronted the nurse and realized that it was all a misunderstanding. A relieved Christina sat down to talk with her husband, but then he dropped the bomb. Owen has cheated on his wife. Wonder where it leaves the two of them.

Community (Season 3-Episode 11)

It was good to see the community college gang returning. There was a marriage proposal at the very beginning and we had Shirley marrying Andre once again. Pierce worked hard to invest his inherited money into a sandwich business with Shirley but that backfired. Jeff and Britta provided a few laughs. And who can forget Troy and Abed. The weird duo is back. There was the Dean, the Monkey and Leonard. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait long before seeing them again.