Everything Is Illuminated
by Liev Schreiber
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Actor: Boris Leskin, Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz, Laryssa LauretDirector: Liev Schreiber
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique
Writer: Liev Schreiber
Editor: Andrew Marcus
Editor: Craig Mckay
Other Contributor: Paul Cantelon
Producer: Matthew Stillman
Producer: Peter Saraf
Producer: Marc Turtletaub
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 59342
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, "Everything is Illuminated" tells the story of a young man's quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map by the Nazi invasion. What starts out as a journey to piece together one family's story under absurd circumstances turns into a meaningful journey with a powerful series o
DVD Reviews of Everything Is Illuminated
DVD Review: Conflicting tales of light weight culture clash and Holocaust Survivor guilt fail to mesh
Summary: 2 Stars
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
'Everything is Illuminated" is a story based on a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer who made a trip to Ukraine in 1999 to research his family history. His experiences form the basis for the novel and the subsequent screenplay, mainly penned by the film's director, well-known actor, Liev Schreiber. In the novel, Jonathan is a writer but Schreiber turns him into a very quirky caricature who is obsessed with collecting things related to his family (the 'heirlooms'--and I'm being very generous in using that word to describe what Jonathan collects--are basically anything that this oddball deems interesting). He places everything he collects in plastic baggies and then pins them on his wall at home (by the way, we never find out what this guy does for a living or if he has any friends).
The inciting incident involves Jonathan's grandmother (who while on her deathbed) gives her grandson a picture of his grandfather standing next to a mysterious woman named Augustine. The picture is dated 1940 and was taken in an unknown town in Ukraine. It seems that Jonathan's grandfather managed to escape to the United States right before the Holocaust with the hope that he might be able to arrange for his pregnant first wife (the woman in the picture, Augustine) to soon follow him. Schreiber tells us that Jonathan's grandfather left a week before Augustine is murdered by the Nazis. It would seem extremely unlikely that he would have a) left his wife and/or b) successfully made it to the United States given that the vast majority of Jews had no means of leaving Ukraine and escaping the Nazis, especially with one week before the invasion and subsequent occupation.
The break into the second act of the story occurs when Jonathan arrives in Ukraine and meets Alex, his genial tour guide whose command of the English language serves as the butt of many jokes throughout the film. Schrieber informs us that the grandfather, who acts as the driver, began the business back in the 50s, taking rich Jews around so that they can research their family history. Unfortunately, Schreiber gets his facts wrong since such tours would never have been permitted back then since Ukraine was a satellite of the Soviet Union (nor did Jews make pilgrimages to Ukraine to research their family history at that point in time) Much of the film's humor falls flat, especially in regards to Alex's linguistic gaffes. "The seeing eye bitch" (which refers to the 'demented' family dog) is one line which seems to be repeated too many times. Other malapropisms include Alex's reference to his brother as "miniature' instead of "younger" and the 'rigid search' for Jonathan's roots in place of 'comprehensive'. Instead of 'sleep', Alex manages to substitute the more difficult 'repose', which may be the screenwriter's way of suggesting that the character is trying to sound smarter than he is.
Certainly the Ukrainians don't come off very well in this film. Schreiber (or perhaps Foer also--I haven't read the book) harp on the Ukrainians' shock at the fact that Jonathan is a vegetarian--they simply can't imagine anyone not eating meat. More damaging is Schreiber's observation that the Ukrainian family (represented by Alex and his father and grandfather) are inherently violent. Alex's father is seen slugging him at the beginning of the film--and later the grandfather attacks Alex after Alex attacks the family dog. The attempt here is to view Jonathan's hosts as affectionate--but more often than not, they come off as surly and unsympathetic.
After all the failed attempts at comedy, the last quarter of the film changes gears and we're asked to take the goofy Jonathan and Alex much more seriously. They discover Augustine's elderly sister, Lista, living off the beaten track in a house hidden by a grove of perfectly kept sunflowers (while the impractical Lista has never been in a car in her entire life, one wonders how she keeps her sunflowers so perfectly arranged). It's Lista who reveals that Augustine was married to Jonathan's grandfather and was murdered by the Nazis along with her father, who refused to spit on the Torah as ordered by his executioners. One wonders how Lista herself escaped as she is clearly Jewish (she too is a 'collector' like Jonathan, saving the buried artifacts of the once thriving Jewish community she used to be part of).
Lista ends up having a 'private' conversation with Alex's grandfather which triggers his repressed memories: it turns out the grandfather actually was Jewish himself and was left for dead after facing a Nazi firing squad. In the book, the grandfather is a non-Jew who must save his own family by turning in Jews; Schreiber creates a more unlikely portrait of the grandfather, a guilt-ridden Jew, who ends up committing suicide. I just couldn't buy how this irascible older codger would suddenly feel pangs of guilt (after such a long period of time) and do himself in.
Finally I'm told that the memorial for the Jews that Jonathan, Alex and his grandfather discover in the empty field is not something that is likely to be found in Western Ukraine. As one Ukrainian Jewish poster has pointed out, there are more monuments to the murderers to be found there than monuments to victims of the Holocaust.
While it's certainly admirable that Schreiber has done a service in once again reminding film-goers of the horrors of the Holocaust, implausibly turning Alex and his family into observant Jews after a lifetime of regarding Jewish people with suspicion, seems to be a pointless exercise in wish fulfillment. One is further disappointed with Schreiber's portrait of his detached protagonist--the quirky Jonathan--who never is believable as a real person and has no real moments of growth. In the end, the 'culture clash' between Ukrainian/Russian and Western sensibilities is decidedly weighted against the Ukrainians and the Holocaust is 'illuminated' through the unlikely suicide of one of its victims.
Description of Everything Is Illuminated
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