Everything Is Illuminated

source: Everything Is Illuminated

I watch them a lot so I know what I'm talking about. It is not perfect, right, but watching this piece is really astonishing. Starting from the choice of actors (and the dog), style, music and sound in general, to a very good camera and editing. Of course, humor is what makes me smile and the rhythm that loses somewhere to the end but still, for the first movie this is a brilliant portraiture.

This film is an absolute joy. As an outstanding directorial debut, Liev Schreiber's movie is up there with 'Citizen Kane' and 'Reservoir Dogs'. The irony here being that Schreiber himself played Orson Welles in 'RKO 281', the 1999 TV movie about the making of 'Citizen Kane'. Elijah Wood delivers a wonderfully subtle leading performance as Jonathan Safran Foer, and the supporting cast, which consists mainly of unknown European actors, are all first-rate. The film also packs a massive emotional punch, which is accentuated by the fact that it starts off as a droll and light-hearted comedy and then turns into an exceptionally moving drama. 'Everything is Illuminated' is just magnificent.

I found this movie very interesting and emotional, although you did not know exactly, should you laugh or cry or pull out your hair in frustration, because it is all so confusing. I enjoyed the "trip" the "bad English" and everything in between. I would have absolutely been exstatic, if the relationships between the characters would have been more clear, but, maybe I am just "slow". If one is allowed, can anyone tell me, if Jonathan was related to the old man and Alex? ...was his grandfather the brother of the old Man? Was Augustine the sister of the "old woman"...was the old woman the young woman witnessing the young man surviving and was she hiding him? As you see, I am left with so many questions....I probably have to buy the book. Which means, the movie was very interesting, and beautiful.

I would easily recommend this movie to anyone, it's a jewel, and when it comes to the acting, I really appreciated Eugene Hutz, although, as it has been said, he is not a professional actor. For me, it was a movie that really brought me to imagine life back in Ukraine during the war, and being of Jewish eastern European descent, I couldn't help but shed a few tears, and realize that if my family, and so many other hadn't fled Ukraine, I might not even be here... The end of the movie kept me absolutely quiet, quite astonished, but all in all, it was a really good movie. All this to say, that it's an amazing movie, it has beautiful images, and is full of very rich emotional detail, and I hope you can appreciate the story like I did.

This film has an eccentric sense of humour with characters who come from very different backgrounds. The protagonist's quest is rather emotional.

23 September 2006. Elijah Wood portrays a young American Jew, a collector of personal items, on a search for his grandfather's friend who saved him during World War II in the Ukraine. In a fascinating look at cultural differences and the sometimes funny, sometimes poignant use of translation, Elijah goes on a journey that will take him into the heart of the Ukraine. While this movie is absorbing and intimate, it eventual suffers from an uneven, uncertain balance of drama and comedy as the movie descends into a seriousness that is difficult to recover from. However, the movie is a delight, particularly in the beginning and well towards the end in providing both humor and drama in sincere doses with amazing impact. Some of the still, quiet moments are the best. Seven out of Ten Stars.

I was fortunate enough to see this movie in its second showing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. I've loved both Liev Shreiber and Elijah Wood in their various roles. I was both pleased and surprised by this movie. It was quirky and unusual, poignant and insightful. It had humor, but didn't turn into complete parody the struggle of the Jewish community in Nazi-held Ukraine. I felt as though I was brought directly into the movie, and I really liked the way the flashes to the past were mostly in black and white, except for a few key elements, the things a person tends to remember in color. I'll definitely be looking for this movie when it comes out for the general public.

Duty. Search. The pieces of cold truth in a strange place. A film about the ages of memory. About old looks and refuges in the shadows of time, about love and curiosity, about letters, pictures and walls of paper, about a young Jew and his plastic little bags. Description of self discover. About dreams and illusions, about a lost village and a woman who expected. A splendid film for its silence's moments. For the images of a far-off Ukraine. The crash of two different mentalities and travel in a ambiguous past.Detachment of masks and a handful of old land. Then, two funeral places and the waters of future. Siluets and strange peace of special justice.

I changed my rating from a 7 to an 8. Although I have seen this movie many times I decided it deserved the higher rating based on their performances of the actors who played Alex's grandfather and the old woman who brought them to what had been Trachimbrod. They both give understated yet powerful performances, the currents of their shared history running deeply beneath the surface.