EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE (12A) Drama. Thomas Horn, Max von Sydow, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Zoe Caldwell, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright.

PUBLISHED in 2005, Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close revisited the deadliest act of terrorism committed on American soil through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy.

Soon after, British director Stephen Daldry began the slow process of bringing Foer's haunting story to the multiplexes, aware of the sensitive touch required to adapt this powerful material.

In the interim, he made The Reader with Kate Winslet, but all of the years of effort with this long cherished project appear to have been worthwhile.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is nominated as Best Picture at this month's Oscars, and the film has attracted a deserved second nomination for veteran Max von Sydow as Best Actor In A Supporting Role. The box office cache of co-stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock should woo mainstream audiences to a gently paced film that conjures chilling memories of the Twin Towers shrouded in smoke.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is anchored by a mesmerising performance from newcomer Horn, who is the emotional heart of the piece.

Hanks is glimpsed in flashback and Bullock impresses in her few scenes, but von Sydow dominates all of his scenes.

The resolution feels contrived, almost preposterous, but the excellent casting and flashes of Daldry's directorial brio counterbalance our incredulity.