Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I do not know the novel. and this is the motif for see this film from the perspective of a East European, with Ukrainean roots, with few drops of Jewish blood, remembering the stories about ancestors of my grand mother. so, for me this film is special more for the story than for performances. because the meet with the past remains unique always. fascinating. seductive. fundamental. because the humor of film reminds the jokes and Hasidic stories and the songs from the old Jewish shtetl from Bukowina. because it is a fairy tale. as a clash between two civilizations. because it is bitter and hopeful and nostalgic, strange and useful. like a cup of black tea.so, for a part of public, an experience. for the others, a good film, I hope.

Jonathan Safran Foer (Elijah Wood) is a peculiar guy. He collects the most mundane everyday personal things. He is Jewish. After his grandfather's death, he goes to Ukraine in search of the ancestral home town of Trachimbrod. He hires an anti-semitic cranky old man and his American pop culture loving grandson Alex to guide him. Alex's translating ability is limited. History is long forgotten. Nobody has heard of the place he's looking for.Director Liev Schreiber is trying too hard to be quirky without actually achieving any laughs. It's weird for weird's sake. Schreiber doesn't have the necessary skills to make it fun. I sit there like Wood's character with his googly eyes staring unblinkingly. For the most part, the movie is a slow weird procession. Then the movie gets to the place and it achieves something poetic. I wonder if these characters are more real, would the story be more poignant? I think the story got a bit overwhelmed by the quirky mannerisms.

There are some clever lines in the script, but the movie failed anyway because ofbad directingawful editing--seriously, just horrible pacingthe most irksome score I've heard in a long whilean unappealing protagonist in the Collector (played by Wood)unevenness of toneI really wasn't in the mood to read a movie as subtitles; this is not advertised as a foreign film, but in large part it isOne terrific actor (Hutz) shining like a diamond in a pile of dog doo gets the two stars; everything else stinks.

Everything Is Illuminated is the most heartbreakingly beautiful and endearing film I have experienced in my 63 years of life. The performances and direction are truly exceptional. The devotion to remembrance, the love and esteem of family, and the perdurable effects of horrific inhumanity, emotional loss, and war, are drawn in a way that is sure, clear, and often subtle. I wonder if I am magnifying the worth of Schrieber's film. But, truly, I cannot in words do over justice to the emotional impact his film has had on me. I've seen the sections of Everything is Illuminated that were not included in the theatrical release. The decision to edit out the fantasy theater scene was crucial. Had that scene been gone forward, I don't believe Everything Is Illuminated would have achieved the level of haunting beauty that it possesses. He has smartly crafted a film that is classic. He has crafted in his direction and writing, a work of cinematic art.