Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - 3 stars

This movie is about Oskar, a very precocious 10 year old. His parents are played by Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. His father was working in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and was killed. Before he died, he used to set up scavenger hunts for Oskar.

A year after his father's death, Oskar finds a key and a newspaper clipping in his father's stuff. Using the clues he finds, he assumes that this is a scavenger hunt his dad devised for him. So he sets off through the streets of New York City to find the lock that the key opens.

For the first half hour or so, I was kind of bored. While I empathized with Oskar, I didn't really care what he was going to find. I also didn't think there was a chance he would find the lock for the key. But then Max von Sydow enters the picture. He plays the mysterious guy who rents a room from Oskar's grandmother. Von Sydow's character doesn't talk, and he gets to show how great an actor he is without saying a word. He starts to go with Oskar on his travels and help him unravel the mystery.

The movie is a bit melodramatic but I really felt for the characters. Oskar may have Asperger's syndrome (the tests were inconclusive), and he has a much harder time than an ordinary kid would expressing his grief. He talks about his father's death in such a matter of fact way that it is even more heartbreaking than if he were to break down. His mother has a hard time dealing with things as not only has she lost her husband, but her son will hardly talk to her.

By the end, I was very emotionally invested. It is a movie that will make you cry. I liked it but I'm not sure I would want to experience it again.