Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) * * *

Directed by:  Stephen Daldry

Starring:  Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Max von Sydow, Jeffrey Wright, Viola Davis, John Goodman

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close covers a lot of ground in the wake of 9/11.   It is at the same time uneven, moving, and unusual.    We don't lose interest, even if we shake our heads at some of the film's preposterous revelations and coincidences.    When you have a mixed bag like this one, you're bound to hit and miss.  I can't say I've seen a film quite like it.   You can interpret that as you will.

The film's trailers and posters give Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock top billing, but the film's true lead is Thomas Horn, who takes on a complex 11-year old boy struggling to deal with the death of his beloved father in the Twin Towers.    His character, Oskar Schell, is quite a load for Horn to shoulder, but he does so admirably.    Oskar is chock full of anxieties, intelligent beyond his years, and possesses a keen analytical mind.    Maybe too analytical.   There are times when we think he will collapse under the burden.   His father Thomas (Hanks) suspects he may have Asperger's Syndrome and arranges almost daily adventures, searches, quests, etc. for Oskar to fulfill.    Hanks once again is imminently likable, almost saintly in his treatment of Oskar and his wife Linda (Bullock).   

Thomas is trapped on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and ultimately perishes.    Some time later, Oskar finds an envelope with the name "BLACK" written on it hidden in a vase.   Inside it is a single key.   Oskar, thinking this is one last quest designed by his father, decides the key must be meaningful in some way and sets out to find into what lock the key fits.    Undaunted by the enormity of the task, Oskar plans to visit everyone with the last name Black in the five New York boroughs.     The key must certainly belong to one of them.    There are 472 of them to be exact and Oskar wants to walk to each one.   

Oskar enlists the help of a kindly old man who lives with his grandmother.    He is known only as "The Renter" (von Sydow), who does not speak even a word.    He writes messages to converse and has the word yes tattooed on the palm of his left hand and no tattooed on the right palm.    Von Sydow (Oscar nominated for his work here) is a towering, genial presence who is able to suggest more with a shrug and a facial expression than others can with speeches.    He is also conceals great pain and a secret or two.    His scene in which he hears Thomas' message on Oskar's answering machine left shortly before the tower collapsed is especially gripping.

I won't reveal how the search turns out, except that Oskar is able to discover things about his loved ones he didn't know before.    His relationship with his mother is distant since Oskar believes the wrong parent died on 9/11 (and says so out loud).    She loves him, but is unable to reach him and is consumed in her grief over such a senseless act which killed her husband.     "You're trying to make sense out of something that never will make sense," she tells Oskar.    His quest to find the lock for the key is proof positive of that.