Thomas Horn plays a boy wrestling with grief
The recollection of the incident causes shudders and angst just thinking about those who lost their lives in the senseless and brutal events choreographed by terrorists.
So why in the world would someone piece together a film with that incident as a key player?
Perhaps he felt he must.
Author Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote this book, touches this event laced in sorrow in a smooth and skillful way as he reveals a family devastated by the attacks and paints a penetrating picture of their desperate attempts to wrestle with grief.
This tale was taken from the page and becomes an amazing film starring Tom Hanks as Thomas Schell, father of a nine-year-old son, Oskar Schell.
It is Oskar, played by Thomas Horn, who tries to make sense of – and find a reason for – his father dying in the World Trade Center attack.
Sandra Bullock is his mother, Linda Schell, and plays this role with amazing restraint.
Her grief is so fierce, as is Oskar’s, that they find little relief in one another’s company.
Oskar and his father played reconnaissance games that sent him searching through Manhattan’s five boroughs for clues.
Oskar has an active mind and is convinced his father left a final message for him hidden somewhere in the city, so he starts a serious search of New York for the lock that fits a mysterious key found in his father's closet.
He is aided in his effort by a silent renter in his grandmother’s apartment,
As Oskar’s search progresses, we enjoy the repartee between Stan the doorman, played by John Goodman, and the touching sequences with Viola Davis, as Abby Black, who is the first on Oskar's list who might know about his key and his father.
In the slog through Manhattan, carrying his tambourine and a back pack stuffed to the gills with serious accoutrements necessary to conduct this scientific and exacting search, Oskar knows he will find the answers he seeks.
In this trek he encounters some fearful impediments that are often overwhelming, but he presses on.
I recommend you join Oskar in his journey.
It is wrenching, amusing and sometimes down right funny, as he wrestles with the world and tries to understand it.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is now playing in select theaters.
It opens everywhere Friday, January 20th.
Click here to visit the film's official website and view the trailer.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for emotional thematic material, some disturbing images and language.
Photos © 2011 Warner Brothers Entertainment
