Movie Review: Everything is Illuminated

Everything is Illuminated (2005) 

Directed by Liev Schreiber 

Written by Liev Schreiber

Starring Eugene Hutz, Elijah Wood, Boris Leskin. Laryssa Lauret

Release Date September 16th, 2005 

Published November 12th, 2005 

Everything is illuminated in the light of history. So says Alex the narrator of the delightful film Everything Is Illuminated, the directorial debut of actor Liev Schreiber. Undeniably, the sentence is over complicated. It is also, easily the cleanest, clearest English Alex speaks in the entire film.

Alex (Eugene Hutz) is a Ukrainian youth who works for his parents tour company as a translator. The company provides tours of the country to jewish visitors in search of their family history. The company's newest client is Jonathon (Elijah Wood), a goggle eyed American whose pasttime is collecting small artifacts of his family history in plastic bags and tacking the bags to the walls of his home.

Jonathon hopes the trip to Ukraine will lead him to the woman who helped his grandfather Safran escape the Nazis. Her name was Augustine and she was from a small village called Trachinbad. The little village has a great deal of meaning to Alex's grandfather, also named Alex, who is the tour company's driver despite the fact that he believes he is blind and will not travel without his crazed dog, or seeing eye bitch as he refers to her, Sammy Davis Jr Jr.

And the quirks they keep on coming in this often Fellini-esque configuration. Liev Schreiber is a little distinguished actor, he has a tendency to fade into the background as an actor. As a director however, Schreiber shows a vibrant imagination and attention to detail. His visuals, with the aid of cinematographer Matthew Libatique, are crisp and lovely in ways Eastern European locales are not often shown.

Schreiber adapted the screenplay himself from the especially quirky book by Jonathon Safron Foer and has managed to make a film of equal idiosyncrasy. And yet as odd as both the film and the book are there is an emotional undercurrent that rises at the end to really catch you off guard.

All along we are aware that the history being chased is part of the holocaust and World War 2 but we are distracted by the unending quirks of the characters until the end of the journey and the introduction of Lista (Laryssa Lauret). Lista is linked to both Jonathon's search and Alex's Sr's past but I will leave you to watch the film to see just how.

The film is not without problems. Most dire is the fact that it the story hinges on the rather large coincidence that Jonathon would hire Alex's family to be his guide and that Alex's grandfather's past would be so entwined with Jonathon's. That is a pretty big contrivance but one I was willing to forgive because so much of Everything Is Illuminated is delightful,

Liev Schreiber is a director to watch. His talent for eye catching visuals and his slightly askew take on normal character arcs are a refreshing change from the norm. No cookie cutter characters, no simple over coming the odds story, nothing you might see in a typical Hollywood creation. Schreiber's off kilter direction of Everything Is Illuminated is a breath of fresh air.