Oskar Schell is an alert nine-year-old boy. Like so many other New Yorkers September 11, 2001 is the worst day of his young life because this is the day his father dies in the World Trade Center. The boy discovers a key among his father’s possessions and, believing this to be his only way of maintaining some connection with his beloved father, he begins a furtive search for the corresponding lock. Working systematically he approaches 472 people with the surname Black – any one of them could be the owner of the key. He is accompanied on his odyssey across New York by a mysterious old man who has rented a room at Oskar’s grandmother’s place. Oskar suspects that this man is none other than his German-born grandfather, but the old boy refuses to say one word …
Stephen Daldry’s film is an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-selling novel of the same name. As the director of THE HOURS and THE READER, Daldry is no stranger to literary adaptations. EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE is both a coming-of-age story and a declaration of love to a magical place and its inhabitants.