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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for emotional thematic material, some disturbing images, and language) Genre: Drama Theater release: January 20, 2012 by Warner Brothers Directed by: Stephen Daldry Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes Cast: Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks), Linda Schell (Sandra Bullock), The Renter (Max von Sydow), Abby Black (Viola Davis), William Black (Jeffrey Wright) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Reader, you're likely here to find out if Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is worth your time. You're looking for an assessment of its virtues and vices, its strengths and its failings. Maybe you read Jonathan Safran Foer's novel on which it's based and—like me—thought it was an unlikely candidate for adaptation to the big screen. You want to know what you'll think when you see it.

I could start by telling you about the plot: Oskar (Thomas Horn) is an odd boy, living in Manhattan with his family, when the "Worst Day" happens—September 11, 2001. Oskar is certainly precocious, a wealth of information about the world ("Did you know humans are the only creatures who can cry?") and might have Asperger syndrome (though, he tells us, the test results were inconclusive). His devoted father (Tom Hanks) has spent an enormous amount of time devising "reconnaissance missions" (scavenger hunts) that also help him break out of his shell and move past his fears. Oskar has lived his whole life in the happy knowledge that his father adores his mother (Sandra Bullock), and if he's feeling lonely, he can just use his walkie-talkie to talk to his grandmother, who lives across the street.

But then the Worst Day happens, taking Oskar's father away, and the boy's slow discovery of the new shape of his life changes him forever.

Thomas Horn as Oskar

A year later, in a moment of rare courage, Oskar ventures for the first time into his father's closet and discovers a vase on the top shelf; when he accidentally breaks it, he discovers a key inside, tucked inside a tiny envelope with one word written on it: Black. His father's last reconnaissance mission for him! This key must unlock something important, and since Oskar can feel his father's presence receding from his life as time wears on, he reasons that he must find that thing in order to keep his father nearby. And so starts an adventure through New York City, where Oskar struggles to make sense of what has happened to him, to his father, and to the world.

I suppose that plot outline might help you decide whether to see the movie. But I could also tell you about the filmmaker's skill in taking the novel—which is famously postmodern and, since it's narrated by Oskar, somewhat unreliable—and turning it into a navigable, heartfelt narrative of loss and care. Director Stephen Daldry, whose previous films include The Hours and Billy Elliot, is no stranger to these intimate stories of loss and longing that stand in for larger themes, and this is an excellent match for his particular talents, especially when coupled with screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Good Shepherd, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). And set against a backdrop of the "real" New York, outlying boroughs and all, the story captures the life-goes-on attitude of New Yorkers after the Worst Day.

Or I could reflect on the cast: there are some tried-and-true actors here, like Hanks and Bullock, but newcomer Thomas Horn (who, unsurprisingly, was cast after winning Kids Jeopardy!, something his character would absolutely do if he could overcome his terror of people) is simply excellent, whether he's raging or curious or innocent or manic. He's only overshadowed by Max Von Sydow, who plays the mysterious mute boarder at Oskar's grandmother's house who joins Oskar in his quest and expresses more with his eyebrows and gait than a skilled orator might in a grand speech.

Tom Hanks as Thomas Schell

I could also tell you about the strange affinity between this story and another strange story about a little boy: Where the Wild Things Are. (The parallels in some ways are so striking that I keep typing "Max" when I mean Oskar.) Where the Wild Things Are is a story about a young boy who has experienced loss in his family, who feels the senseless brokenness of his world, and solves it only by slipping into his imaginary world. Oskar is the slightly older Max, thrust painfully into reality and tragedy that is far beyond his years. In some ways, Oskar has lost an imaginary world to escape to. The world he lives in is too real. But Max and Oskar both have to find their way home.

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