Ten years after the senseless terrorist act of September 11, 2001, America is still recovering from their wounds and our scars may never heal.

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, young Oskar (a superb Thomas Horn) is mourning his jeweler father (Tom Hanks) who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks. Oskar is obsesses with his father and wants to make sense of the tragedy.

Oskar discovers a key among his father’s belongings labeled “Black” and that sets him forth on a mission to find what lock the key fits. For every key, there is a lock. And for every lock, a key fits. Oskar is determined to find the missing piece of the puzzle.

Treking across the city and much against his mother’s (Sandra Bullock) wishes, his focus is solely on this task. A task he and his father shared, although many of them were imaginary, known as “reconnaissance expeditions”. all this is going on while the memories of his answering machine at home has his dad’s last voice on it saying, “Something big has happened downtown but I want to let you know I’m ok”.

Along his way, he meets up with some interesting people including a mute man known only as The Renter (Max Von Sydow) who is staying in a room across from his grandmother (Zoe Caldwell) and then there is another couple (Viola Davis and Jeffery Wright) who are dealing with their own pain.

From the onset of this film, we are given the impression that Oskar is a ‘special’ boy that could follow a complex clue from point A to point B and not give up until he reaches his goal while still trying to cope with the lose of his father while his mother and him have a weaker relationship. It’s almost as if there is a window separating then from being close.

This is a very good story and although a bit contrived, we are not supposed to take Oskar’s ‘gift’ realistically.  Horn, a first time actor who was spotted by producers after winning big time on Kid’s Jeopardy, owns most of the film as Bullock plays second fiddle and Hanks, who is most recently known for voice-overs, is mostly seen here in flashbacks.

Director Stephen Daldry keeps the story simple but not really meant for children although there are lots of childhood memories and terrors through out.

This movie opens everywhere in theaters on January 20, 2012. It is rated PG-13 and runs under 2 hours.

By Hustlin Bob Higgins 3 stars