Everything Is Illuminated

Starring: Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz Original UK Premiere: 2005 Dvd Release: 27th March, 2006 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding

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Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 adventure / comedy / Drama film, written & directed by Liev Schreiber & starring Elijah Wood. It is based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. // A young American Jewish man goes on a quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map by the Nazi invasion. His guides are a cranky grandfather & his over-enthusiastic grandson, whose fractured command of English, passion for American pop culture & inability to shut up threaten to make the worst of every situation. But what starts out as the tour from hell turns into a meaningful journey, with an unexpected series of revelations that will change all of their lives. Although the film is set in the Ukraine, all non-English dialogue is in Russian rather than Ukrainian.

On very rare occasions, it's a good idea not to follow the book.

Jonathan Safran Foer's cult novel Everything Is Illuminated has a wild chronology, & the journey is sprinkled with magical realism & countless flashbacks to minor characters. It COULD be crammed into a film, but it would not be a very accessible one. In fact, it might be almost unwatchable.

Enter actor Liev Schreiber, who chopped out much of the backstory & focused on the road movie in the Ukraine storyline. No, it's not like the book. But taken on its own, Everything Is Illuminated is a a striking, humorous & poignant film. Schreiber should be proud.

Jonathan has a funny fixation about remembering the past, which includes putting life souvenirs in plastic baggies & taping them to the wall. So his curiosity is piqued when his grandmother tells him of Augustina, a woman who rescued his grandfather during World War II. With only a ring & a photo to guide him, Jonathan travels to the Ukraine to find Augustine.

He's met at the station by Alex , a hip-hop tour guide who speaks his own peculiar dialect, Alex's weird, melancholy grandad , & grandad's seeing eye b*tch. As they search the Ukraine for Augustine, if she is still alive, Jonathan begins to learn about the ways the past infringes on the present -- & a bit about himself as well.

Schreiber apparently decided to adapt Everything Is Illuminated when he began to chronicle his own family history, & discovered that it was strikingly similar to Foer's novel. For a beloved cult novel, editing & reshaping is a risky business. But in Schreiber's case, it becomes a whole different animal -- it retains the spirit of the original, if not the sense of history.

While this is Liev Schreiber's directorial debut, it doesn't feel like one. Instead, it feels polished & experienced, with beautiful cinematography that ranges from night skies to a field of dazzling sunflowers. In sepia-toned flashbacks, Schreiber follows the less-is-more rule by merely hinting at the Holocaust's horrors, which is, oddly enough, more effective.

And his script has pathos & anguish, but also plenty of humour , such as the scene where he tries to figure out what a vegetarian is, prompting Wood to tell him firmly Nothing! No meat!... only to have both men ask what's wrong with him. The only problem is that at times the road-trip format gets a bit precious, & the storyline stalls once or twice.

Elijah Wood gives a remarkably subtle performance as a quiet, slightly neurotic young man who seems to be searching for something in the past to make him complete. Hutz balances him out with the colourful, slightly wonky Alex. He's both comic relief & a sort of wiser older brother for Jonathan. The plot revolves around these two, & they are balanced out well.

Okay, it's not the book. But then again, it really doesn't pretend to be. Instead, Liev Schreiber's Everything Is Illuminated is a bittersweet comedy that will leave you with a smile.

Elijah Jordan Wood is a US actor. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is the middle of the three children of Warren & Debbie Woods. He has a brother Zack, a video game producer & seven years his senior, as well as a younger sister Hannah, a poet & actress like Wood. His parents called him Spark Plug. Zack, his brother, introduced him to video games by playing them in front of him. Wood feels as if he were born to entertain. A professional actor since the age of six, he is best known for the role of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings movies. He took the stage in his elementary schools rendition of the play The Sound of Music. The following year, he graduated to the title character of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wood also served as choir boy during the production of Today he is hailed as one of the greatest actors of his generation & continues to star in hit movies each year. The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King. Posters Of Elijah Wood

Editors Choice: The Lord Of The Rings, Green Street, Everything Is Illuminated, The Fellowship Of The Ring, All I Want, Ash Wednesday, The Adventures Of Tom Thumb And Thumbelina, Flipper, View DVDology

Eugene Hütz moved to Vermont in the United States with his parents following the Chernobyl nuclear accident, being a refugee at age 14. He formed the Gypsy / Punk band Flying Fuck, later named Gogol Bordello. Later, he moved to New York & his now-well-known band was what got him recognized by the producer of Everything Is Illuminated, Peter Saraf. So far, his filmography includes Kill Your Darlings & Kill Your Idols. He also stars opposite Elijah Wood & Boris Leskin in Liev Schreibers Everything Is Illuminated, based on a critically acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Hütz also created the soundtrack for Everything Is Illuminated along with his brother & several of his band members. He is also a DJ who performs at Mehanata in New York. Eugene Hutz at the Internet Movie Database.

Editors Choice: Everything Is Illuminated, View DVDology

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