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Product Description
A young jewish american man endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during world war ii in a ukrainian village that was ultimately razed by the nazis with the help of a local who speaks weirdly funny broken english. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/23/2006 Starring: Elijah Wood Run time: 106 minutes Rating: Pg13
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Customer Reviews: - Beautiful
This isn't a romance movie, or anything of that sort. It was a beautiful look at a life outside of ours. A world of bliss we'll probably never see. I enjoyed this movie a lot. It was very heart felt. My whole family laughed, and cried. ...more info - Eugene Hutz is brilliant
This movie is hillarious and heart-wrenching at once. Eugene Hutz is brilliant as "Alex". He and Elijah Wood have an awkward chemestry that fits right into their roles. It's quite different from the book in some ways but alot of the brilliant monologues were saved. Also, kudos to the dog who played Sammy Davis Junior Junior. She made a great seeing[...] ...more info - Thought-Provoking, Tragic, and Hilarious
It's hard to decide which is funnier -- the Ukranian translator who learned English from a thesaurus, the main character who collects dirt, false teeth, a potato, and hundreds of other odd objects connected to his life in ziplock bags, or the Ukranian grandfather who claims to be blind even as he drives a tourist around the countryside. That driver's "seeing eye[...]," Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., is pretty funny, too. At the same time, this is one of the most meaningful, touching, and poignantly sad films to come out in the past several years.
Is the film confusing, as some say? Only if you're not really watching, or if you expect director Liev Schrieber to serve up everything on a plate for you. My wife and I spent at least a couple of hours after seeing the film discussing what was meant by various scenes, especially the flashbacks, which made the whole thing a richer, more meaningful experience for us both.
Also worth noting is that the film IS quite different from the book, but that's not a bad thing. Liev Schriber has done a wonderful job of telling the whole story by focusing on the personality of the main character and the central event that changes his life, then leaving the rest to your imagination. If he had, instead, tried to SHOW how that character became what he is, the film would have lost much of its charismatic appeal.
Last, after you watch the film, be sure to watch the deleted scenes in the Special Features section. They, too, are hilarious, but what impressed me the most was the grand scale (and presumed cost) of some of the scenes they left out. And, in this case, seeing what they cut enhances the parts they left in. That is, I could see how it must have been tempting to include some of the more explanatory deleted scenes to make the film "easier," but I ended up appreciating Schrieber's deft use of understatement all the more....more info - Worth Catching!
This is one of those films that surprises you with it's warmth,wit and off-beat attitude. I first saw it flipping through the channels while I was in a particularly "disintersted" mood. I expected to flip the channel again within a few minutes but pleasently found myself quickly drawn into the characters and the story. The cast and the screenplay are endearing, as is the musical score. It's just a small sweet movie, nothing more....more info - Thought provoking long after the movie has ended...
Liev Schrieber did an amazing job! I loved the movie and will definitely look for more movies from him. Eugene Hutz was also great -- in my mind, he represented young Ukraine. There is a youthful [sometimes ridiculous] exuberance and yet there is also a depth of pain, humiliation, deep longing for success and recognition. The grandfather and grandson are so close in proximity yet there was a fixed chasm between them that they could not cross. Then Jonathan Safron Foer comes on the scene......more info - Quirky and you need to pay attention
I knew almost nothing about the film--I rented it on a recommendation from a friend. The story takes a long time to get going, but it is well worth the patience. It is quirky, often funny, and unpredictable,not a perfect film, but the story becomes compelling and the atmosphere very convincing and realistic. All is wrapped up a bit too neatly, but the performances are excellent...more info - Surprisingly good
Everything Is Illuminated was a surprise 2002 hit novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, which was a thinly veiled fictional account of his 1999 trip to Ukraine to research his Jewish roots during World War Two. The young author, only twenty-five at the book's release, elicits a widely divergent critical range of opinion- from hyperbolic praise by established hack writers like Joyce Carol Oates, to outright condemnation by young, unpublished hacks who resent his two book, half a million dollar publishing deal.
Never having heard of the writer before, and never having read his work, I had no idea of all this when I picked up the 2005 film version of his book, starring ex-Hobbit Elijah Woof as Foer, and directed by actor Liev Schreiber, his first time behind the camera. What I saw was a truly great, but little, film. More than being simply great, though, the film is, by far, the best fictional film ever made about Jewish suffering during the Final Solution of the Nazi reign of terror in Europe, during World War Two. It achieves this apogee with a deft mix of comedy and drama that is reminiscent of the best of Charlie Chaplin, yet shorn of the worst elements of that Master's sentimentality.
How much of this is due to Foer's book, and how much due to the sterling script, penned by Schreiber, I do not know, but the acting is nothing short of spectacular, all around, starting with Wood as Jonathan. He is an obsessive collector, because he fears forgetting his past, and puts all sorts of things in plastic bags. Yet the space for his recently deceased grandfather is bare. All he has of him is a piece of jewelry and an old photo with a woman who hid his grandfather from the Nazis that his grandmother gives him. Jonathan decides to travel to Odessa, Ukraine to find the woman, thank her for saving his ancestor, and learn more about his grandfather's former life....Others have detailed the rest of the plot.... This film succeeds where god-awful pseudo-epics like Schindler's List fail precisely because it mixes in the funny with the horrid, and does not dwell on the pornography of death that many in the business of prostituting the Holocaust and its dead millions rely on. The death of an individual, in this film, is far more affecting than Spielberg's anonymous bodycount. The viewer, who is smart enough, can multiply that by the millions to himself. Seeing the old lady is a collector of the things of the dead, too, is a powerful way to evoke not just the dead's bodies, but their lives and desires, the essence of the human far truer than flesh and blood. Another positive of the film is that it does not tie all things up in a neat bow, and is thus more real than many such films that have to spoonfeed their audiences. Save for Alex's end conversion to Judaism, all these loose ends emotionally fit, so to speak.
Fans of the book complain that the illumination at the novel's end is that Alex's grandfather was a Gentile who finked out his Jewish friend to the Nazis to save his own family. This would explain Grandpa's suicide a bit better than believing that he felt some survivor's guilt, when the film makes him a Jew. Yet, since the film ends realistically, without answering all questions, the suicide fits neatly into that spectrum, thus leavening the discrepancy. And, be that as it may, films always have to change things in books, and the film's revelations are no less devastating, and more realistic, especially if you've never read the book, so the argument fails. The film does not. It entertains, enlightens, and leaves a viewer wanting more. This is what all art should do.
...more info - great film
I love this movie. It's funny and tragic and is just fantastic. I bought the book too, but I just haven't been able to get into it. I LOVE the music in the film too. I still have to get the soundtrack....more info - Moving But Predictable
I have not read the reviews about this film, so this an untainted opinion. It is true that Ukraine is a free state today in name at least and the past is there to be sifted through, a battlefield of bloody artifacts. The Lives of Other's, a recent Foreign Film Academy winner does a nice job on Leftist Fascism, the ruined lives of a police state; however, EII takes a more curious, mystical path to relatives lost not all that long ago.
Elijah Woods plays a young Jewish man from New York that is obsessed with his dead grandfather's roots. Those roots include an escape from death at the hands of the SS in 1941. The old man's village had been rounded up and assassinated, all 1000 residents, thereby obliterating the citizens and their way of life. These scenes are handled with restraint considering, but especially the first half of the film proceeds as a quirky comedy of errors showing the bizarre misunderstandings between perceptions of American Culture and their adulation in modern Ukraine. The Ukrainian hipster, Eugene Lutz, is tortured by his crazy family and amazed at the very unhip American he must guide back to the past.
Woods' character is almost as an autistic mental patient with a deadpan face that shows emotion rarely which at first is amusing and then when the film becomes serious, it is maddening. Nevertheless, this film has it's moments and I recommend for those that want a little history with a minimum of blood.
...more info - Great Movie. Need to watch it twice.
This is a great movie. It did not get much attention, but is a great film. The decision to come at this story from the travel guide's perspective is wonderful. Highly recommend this film....more info - okay
i love this movie!! and amazon did a great job shipping it. the only thing wrong with the shipment is, i believe there are some scratches on the dvd. besides that, everything's fine....more info - Worth the trip
I had not read the book so I went into this blind. It turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen in months. I loved the dry, understated humor, eccentric characters and intelligent script. In that way it reminded me of the buzz I got watching Northern Exposure on TV years ago. Elijah Wood is fabulous. It's funny, it's sad and it delivers a lovely truth about family and our connections. A very intelligent and effective story that I would happily watch again. ...more info - fascinating movie
fascinating movie. appeals to teen and adult age groups. promotes good conversation....more info - wonderful--great job, everyone !!!
Everything Is Illuminated tells the highly interesting story of a young Jewish man, Jonathan Safran Foer (played well by Elijah Wood), who travels to Ukraine from America to find the woman who rescued his grandfather during World War II. The acting is rather convincing and the plot moves along at a good pace; I was never once bored and I enjoyed the humor which comes mostly at the beginning of the film. The cinematography is excellent and they did a fairly good job, although not a perfect one, of adapting the real life Jonathan Foer's book into a movie.
When the action starts, Jonathan, who loves to collect things so he won't forget his past, comes to Ukraine and meets his "guides," a rather crabby old man (Boris Leskin) and his grandson Alex (played brilliantly by Eugene Hutz). Boris and Alex also have with them the grandfather's "seeing eye b*tch;" the grandfather claims he is blind but of course he's really not sight impaired at all.
It isn't long before they start heir journey to the small village named Trachimbrod where Jonathan's grandfather was rescued by Augustine, the villager Jonathan hopes very much to find. They get lost along the way and get hit up by a small kid demanding chewing gum before he'll clear the way for the car; and the scenes in which Jonathan has to sit in the rear of the car with a dog he's afraid of are very funny indeed. I also agree with the reviewer who writes that as time goes along Jonathan and Alex's two personalities balance each other out very well and in some sense Alex does become an older brother for Jonathan.
Eventually they get started in the right direction after all. Of course, questions arise. Will Trachimbrod be built up again after the Germans wiped it off the map during the war? Will they find Augustine and be able to thank her; or will they find a relative of Augustine's instead? What happens when a very deep secret of the grandfather's is finally revealed toward the end of the film? No plot spoilers here, folks--watch the movie and find out!
The DVD has a few extras but not as many as I would have liked. The film's soundtrack has some pretty good musical numbers by Gogol Bordello.
Overall, Everything Is Illuminated is an outstanding motion picture that I highly recommend. It will have special significance for the Jewish community and persons studying the era of World War II. Great job, everyone!
...more info - Everything is Illuminated
Everything is truly illuminated in this wonderful film about Jonathan Safran Foer, a young Jewish man, played magnificently by Elijah Wood, who, in the process of searching for his roots, transforms the lives of those around him....more info - Movie with heart and extreme laughter
This is literally one of the best movies I've ever seen. The first half of the movie, you will laugh uncontrollably at the cultural misunderstandings and crazy antics of the characters; then, the story morphs into a drama that grabs your heart and twists it like dough. I've never watched a movie that causes me to feel so many emotions in one sitting. And I was drawn into it within the first 3 minutes.
Also, it is very, VERY quotable....more info - In the past eveything is illuminated
This is a review of the movie and not the dvd product.
I have just finished seeing this great masterpice of cinema, it symbolic and mixed of magical realism. The photography is impeccable and the pace while is slow, its the slowness that makes you feel the levity of being, its density is packed with music so mystical, there is the violin playing the sad jewish melodies of a town that disappear,there are the mid-eastern voices, the almost latin rhythms of typical ukainian folk... the bizarre characters, with the russian or ukrainian dialogues mixed with a comic looking american fellow who can communicate through a even more hilarical ukranian who distort just about anything he says or hears.. this movie is poetry..
I have seen the closing need of those who lived the holocoust, after so many years, they go back to Poland, Ukraine, etc I always wondered why?...this movie has made me understand that a bit, at the end we all belong to the earth that saw us born, we need to reconcile with what was abruptly taken...its the closing process that brings new life to the characters here, that unites them through an invisible thread that leads them to the greatest gift of closure: peace
The most moving part to me, was when the old woman, who has lived in a time capsule since the WWII asked: is the war over?...
Can we say the war is really over? will it ever be over?
...more info - Great Movie from a great book
Elijah Wood does an amazing job as Jonathan Safran Foer, the "hero," of the movie. And, Eugene Hutz is great as Alex. He is so funny, and did a great job portraying the character. Overall, this movie is a MUST SEE!!!...more info - EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED
My brother and I had planned almost the same trip to trace the roots of both my mother and father.
Before going I did some research and found there is no evidence remaining that their family ever existed....more info - Marvelously Gentle
This is a marvelously gentle but sincere look at the effects the Holocaust has today. Elijah Wood plays the role of a collector who is seeking to collect memories of his family that was lost in the Holocaust. His parents have died leaving him with no memories of the family before they came to the United States. All they did leave him was a locket that serves as the key to his search for family and memories.
The film is beautifully photographed, directed, and delicately acted. Elijah Wood's portrayal of the main character is often flat and unemotional which cinematically magnifies the vibrancy of the joie de vie of those around him....more info - Any DVD extras
Movie fine and funny - that is why the rating. But nobody in primary reviews says - nor does Amazon - if there are any extras - particularly interested in deleted scenes since they are mentioned in IMDB. Only want DVD's including such, so would like to know....more info - My Favorite Movie- Have watched atleast 30 times
This is honestly, the funniest movie I have ever watched. I didn't think non Russian speakers would find it as funny as I did, but according to the hundreds of other reviews on this site, it is well loved by you guys as well. Trust me when I say this: this movie rocks!...more info - An engaging and strange road film with a better payoff than the bad jokes would lead one to expect
I have not read the book that is the source of this movie and I probably won't. However, I suspect that the ideas laid out in this movie are more richly developed there. And I suspect that this movie is not for everyone. It is purposefully strange because one of the points of the movie is to disturb the commonplaces of what makes up reality. Much of the movie is in Russian (or is Ukrainian, I wouldn't know) with subtitles - because it takes place in the Ukraine. And what English there is between Jonathan (Elijah Wood plays him with a very buttoned down surface with a deep and probably torrential inner being) and his America-crazed, English-mangling translator, Alex (marvelously performed by Eugene Hutz).
While I don't want to give anything away, because unraveling the story is the point, but the large sweep of it one can get right away - by the ages of the grandparents and so forth. Elijah Wood's character, Jonathan, is and always been a collector. Not in the sense of someone who collects rare items of value, but because the items he collects are valuable ways of holding on to his reality - his life - and the people and events that slip away into memory and risk being forgotten. This isn't discussed at length in the movie, and by the time he says a sentence about it, you will probably have figured this out.
Based on a couple of artifacts he acquires, but denied an explanation for, he decides to begin a journey to discover their true source and meaning. He engages a Ukrainian company called Heritage Tours that specializes in bringing rich Jews to their homeland or their parents' and grandparents' homeland. The usually find out that everyone is dead or gone. Still, it is a trip that must be done. Jonathan engages this strange little, angry, and obliquely deranged family company. And, being a road film, things have to start off badly between the parties involved. Here we have a grandfather (Boris Leskin) who claims he is blind (but isn't). He is the driver. And his seeing eye dog (they use the female name for dog in the movie) is named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. because it is named after grandfather's favorite singer, Sammy Davis Jr..
Grandfather, the dog, and Alex as translator take Jonathan on a journey to find Trachimbrod. A village (shtetl) that Jonathan thinks will illuminate the past and the context for the items he is trying to understand. Of course, they have to have reversals and learning experiences along the way. The payoff is quite worth the journey and the movie takes a couple of steps up at that point.
I absolutely and utterly reject the choice made for the grandfather by the author, however. Yes, I understand the reason for him making that choice, but it is far too immoral or amoral to be the payoff for the blessing he received. Still, I can forgive the movie this, because the main points of the story remain true. Our history does illuminate everything and ride beside us in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. And understanding it, embracing it, and accepting our true reality, no matter how horrible, does heal us and bring us understanding.
Very good.
...more info - Great DVD
Great movie. I loved the meshing of the story lines. Definitely entertaining. Characters are often quirky which adds laughter to the intensity as the drama builds....more info - Be Illuminated...
Really an excellent film, but the real star of the show is Johathan Safran Foer and Start Wearing Purple....more info - Illumination
Hilarious interpretations of the English language, very intriguing, mysterious storyline journey. An altogether original film. Read the book afterwards--it's even more complex. ...more info - A Magical Mystery Tour
This exquisite film was truly an experience of discovery. The beginning seemed perplexing but by the end one has come full circle, and the events revealed during the journey - and the way they were portrayed - made an impression so powerful that one carries it around long afterward. Eugene Hutz is a fascinating character. He and all the others in the movie all deserve high praise for this very unusual effort. ...more info - most unusual I've ever seen
First time I saw this movie on HBO I was stunned. Note, I'm Ukrainian myself, still have a relatives there, so I can see and read between the lines easy. But this concept of the movie is simple the best. You have to be ready to accept the level of unusual information. Of course it's greately simplified most, but a lot of things is real. It is very phylosophical and sad and loving. And very funny. Actors and dog and everything else is SOMETHING ELSE, I'm telling you. Highly recommend, and I'm bying it for myself and for my neighbor. His grandfather is Jew from Kiev. ...more info - Amazing movie, really shines light on important things
I am glad American movie makers have desided to make this film. This is a great way to show to American people at least a bit of what is widely known in Ukrain and Russia and is deeply respected. The use of an actor like Elijah Wood would help all those 13 year old girls get a hold of this movie and discover something a lot more meaningful then obsession over Frodo's character...
Two things that gave me joy as I watched this movie was the realistic, Russian-Ukranian humoristic aproach, and the story as it unfolded.
Simmular story happened to my great-grandfather as well. He went to America during WW2 and when came back to get his wife, was killed for "betraying" his country.
Also, just so you know, the word they used for Jew was a Russian slogan that still means a Jew and IS NOT a descriminative word, just a slogan people are used to...
Also, for those who claim some scenes humanly unrealistic, well, when my grandma came to America, first thing she asked when arrived in 1998 was "Is the war really over?". For many of us it could be a surprise that she asked that, but in reality, all that she went through everything that my grandma and others have gone through made her who she was until her death and images of war never vanished...
I highly recommend this movie to anyone....more info - No respect for the source material whatsoever.
Everything is Illuminated is one of my favorite novels of all time, mostly due to Foer's inventive writing style and vivid characterizations, but also because of the powerful storyline that is echoed across multiple timelines. But this movie is a travesty of arrogance run amok.
Don't get me wrong, I'm usually fine with directors changing their source material to better suit the big screen, but there is a huge difference between tweaking a story line for the sake of efficiency and completely changing the plot, characters and meaning.
I agree that the book, as is, would be practically unfilmable by most filmmakers. I even agree that removing the historical passages of the book might be a good idea to make the storyline more manageable for the film medium. It's a sad loss of some great material, to be sure, but maybe a necessary one. Unfortunately, Liev Schrieber takes so many other liberties with the source material that the movie no longer has the same plot, the same characters, the same resolution, or the same meaning. The entire POINT of the book is completely discarded and essentially inverted. Even the characters are changed in such essential ways and with such utter disregard for everything that made them special in the first place that they are almost unrecognizable. It's as if Liev read the book and completely misunderstood it. Either that, or he is so arrogant and infatuated with himself that he actually believed he could improve it by altering its essence. I'm not sure which one is worse, but regardless, the only thing left that connects this movie to the book is the title, which is a huge disservice to the author's numerous fans.
I actually believe that this movie is so different from the book in tone, vision, character, and meaning, that had Liev Schreiber made and released the movie under a different title and changed the characters names, no one would have ever made the connection to the original "source" material.
But is it a good movie?
Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible for me to separate the book from the movie, or review the movie on its own merits. I can only imagine that if I had not read the book beforehand that I would find the movie to be watchable but underwhelming and incohesive. It has an enjoyable sense of quirkiness and some nice cinematography but no heart or pulse. And in comparison to the book, the movie lacks character, credibility, emotional resonance, and originality. It lacks everything that made the book great.
Everyone else on this review board either never read the book or is in bed with Liev Schrieber. Trust me. I honestly felt like I'd been sucker-punched while watching this "adaptation". It's the first time I've ever taken personal offense to a filmmaker's treatment and lack of respect for the source material. I wish I could will this movie into nonexistence.
What makes me the most angry is that this watching this movie might dissuade people from eventually reading the book, which to me is unforgiveable. It's inarguably an important, essential work of fiction for everyone and anyone.
So if it's not too late, skip this movie and read the book. You'll thank me later....more info - Offbeat treatment of Holocaust and Genealogy
This is a very odd movie. It's good, but definitely not what I expected. At first I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be a comedy or a drama. It slowly shifted more toward drama and I slowly got a sense of what the story was actually about. The actors are very good, and there is decent character development.
The story itself is about an American collector (Woods) going to the Ukraine to find some elements from his family history. His Ukranian tour guide is a grandfather-grandson combination that definitely adds color.
Overall, I liked it, but could not recommend it fully to everyone. You really have to like offbeat movies or Elijah Wood to go for this one in my book....more info - Fairy Tale
Beautiful movie, nice music, good actors.
Awful translation - all actors (except for the Jewish lady at the end) don't even say the word "Jew", they use a much more derogatory term. If the intent was to show their anti-Semitism, this was lost in translation. In many cases spoken Russian and English subtitles don't match.
A number of things in the story do not make sense. A husband goes to America in 1941 to prepare for the rest of the family to come? From the Soviet Ukraine?? Or from the territory occupied by Germans??? In either case this is total baloney. The question from the old lady if the war is over, is like an old joke about a partisan who is still blowing up trains because he did not know the war ended ...
They don't have any Trabants in Ukraine - the car that was driven in the movie. That was purely East German phenomena. Although the story says that they are traveling from Odessa, Jonathan character comes to Lviv train station - totally different part of Ukraine. And so on...
First half of the movie is nice. After that it is all downhill. "Start wearing purple" song used in the movie is also incomplete.
I expected more from the movie ...
...more info - Everything...
Saw the movie for first time today (03/18/2007). I can't add anything to that which has been already said.
1. I'm getting myself a copy of the DVD
2. I'm getting a copy of the book - so I can see what's missing
Five stars for this one!!...more info - Ukrainian Road Trip
An odd young man, who collects family momentos in plastic baggies, travels to the Ukraine for a Jewish heritage tour. He seeks answers about who was the woman in the photo with his grandfather standing in the Ukrainian wheat field in 1942?
Serving as his translator on the road trip across the Ukraine is a glib young man who often mangles English. The translator's grandfather, a taciturn character, drives them. The grandfather's insane dog livens up the trip.
The viewer is often left wondering (what did he say? what did that mean?) but hangs on for the ride. There is humor, pathos, history, ethnic music and hiphop and glorious scenery to enjoy along the way. Eventually the role of the Ukrainian grandfather becomes clear and the ways their lives touch and blend ends the movie in a sad but illuminating way....more info - very creative Movie
the film took me a little while to get into but once I did I was really enjoying the exchanges and various inter actions with each character.Elijah Wood was very Good in this film. the vegeterian scene early on cracked me up and the reaction he got in the House. the film is haunting and yet has it's moments where it makes you think and then laugh in places. but the pacing and overall direction of this film is really solid. I enjoyed this film which i viewed recently and the film will make you think and question so much....more info - A Glowing Review for Everything is Illuminated
Adapting the script, very intelligently, from the wildly tangled novel of the same name, Liev Shrieber does an amazing job pulling the critical threads together to create a visually rich and emotionally fullfilling story about remembrance, guilt and forgiveness. The casting, right down to the loveable and insane dog named Sammy Davis Jr. jr, is perfect. This is a character piece and what it is more it is a very rare thing in modern cinema, a story of good ( if weird) young men. Alex and Jonathan are sweet, kind, mixed-up and trying to understand themselves by understanding where they come from. The counter balance between the over the top Alex and the quiet and introspective Jonathan works very well. The changes that Shreiber makes in giving voice to Alex( the writer) and having Jonathan communicate through his collection, ties in beautifully with the ending ( in a field of sunflowers) , as well as with the way that the grandfather finally achieves absolution for his past actions. Wood's Jonathan is an image of grace in this final interaction with the grandfather character. Shrieber is to be applauded for what he has achieved....more info - Qirkily worms its way into your heart
This is one those movies I started to watch and thought, "What the heck?!" Quickly, though, this movie tightened its grip and charmed me into loving it. I only know one person who wasn't CRAZY about "Everything is Illuminated," and she's hard to impress, anyway. All the characters are so quirky, but you have to love them. Great blend of funny and sad. I recommend it to everyone....more info - One of my favorite humorous character studies of all time
This movie had me laughing constantly in the midst of this journey with some very interesting & unique characters. The cross-cultural relationships and language barriers in translation made for some very interesting dialogue, often funny and often quite profound. All the characters were extremely well cast and the acting was excellent. This is a very different role for Elijah Wood and he performed it flawlessly. This movie will not only make you laugh, but also bring some new insights into the dilemma of those who survived the horrors of World War II. The ending will surprise you and leave a deep impact. ...more info - Everything Is Illuminated
Everything Is Illuminated
I was really surprised about this movie. I had doubts that I would like it, but was amazed at how good this movie really is. This is an excellent movie. It was well acted. Elijah Wood as the young Jewish boy searching for his grandfather's past in the Ukraine, Eugene Hutz as the grandson of the Tour guide. What I thought was going to be a boring movie, turned out to be a gem. Don't worry about the subtitles from Russian to English, you don't notice. The movie moves nicely to its' finally, when everything is illuminated. ...more info - Everyone gets illuminated
I bought this dvd because I was curious about Eugene Hutz as an actor. For those of you not familiar with is band GOGOL BORDELLO, he is the charismatic (to put it mildly) frontman for a gypsy punk band that is one of the most exciting and unique live acts out there. I knew nothing of the story prior to purchasing the dvd.
Wow.
This is a road-trip film that is a journey of self-discovery. It offers everything: humor, sadness, confusion, more humor, beautiful scenery, conflict, and a poignant resolution.
The other reviews go deeper into the storyline of this film. I was glad that I knew almost nothing about this film prior to viewing.
If you want to view something totally fresh and unexpected, watch this film. It's not like anything else out there....more info
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