Dir. Scott Derrickson, US, 2005, 119 mins
Cast:
Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter
Actor Liev Schreiber's directorial debut Everything is Illuminated, based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, is an accomplished debut by the star of The Manchurian Candidate, if a little naive.
Set in Ukraine in East Europe , the film deals with a very familiar subject, the holocaust as it impacts on descendants of the survivors. However, the story takes a look at the tragedy and its aftermath through fresh eyes, which is unsurprising as Safran Foer, who wrote the novel in 2001, is only 28 years old now.
Elijah Wood plays the fictionalised Jonathan, or Jonfen as he is referred in Ukraine-speak, a young American on a quest to find out more about the woman who is credited with saving his grandfather's life during the pogroms at the beginning of the war in his native European country.
Jonathan is a collector of unusual, family-related memorabilia - false teeth, a broken necklace, a used condom - and is given the photograph of his grandfather as a young man with his reputed saviour, Augustine. At a loss in his own personal life, he sets out to find her.
Jonathan comes into contact with Alex (Eugene Hutz) in Odessa , the guide who will take him to find the hometown of his predecessors. He also meets Alex's own grandfather, played by Boris Leskin, who will be their driver. The fact that the grandfather has been affecting psychosomatic blindness since the death of his wife only adds to Jonathan's alienation in this strange place. The grandfather's mad seeing-eye dog, Sammy David Jr, Jr, is a whole story in itself.
Although it is Jonathan's story, Hutz's Alex is the central point and an incredibly well-written character. A man who seems to have learned English using a version of Roget's Thesaurus. In other words he will use an archaic word in place of a more simple one. Hence, 'that's all clear now' on Alex's tongue becomes 'everything is illuminated'.
The film's great strength, and something that lifts its characters out of the stereotypical quirkiness that can befall road movies, is the comical narration from Hutz. It is not annoyingly patronising it is, in fact, illuminating.
This is a new look at the tragic razing of Jewish villages during World War II and the persecution and annihilation of a whole section of society. The story is of the people lucky enough to survive, who have in some cases coped and moved on, where some have never been able to forget. Augustine's sister Lista, for instance, has become a collector, like Jonathan, of bric-a-brac and souvenir's belonging to the dead members of her doomed village.
Don't be mistaken though, this film is not depressing, it is funny, emotional and intelligent. A look at how your past will eternally influence your life and your attitudes, and in some cases, how forgotten or long-hidden memories will indelibly change everything.
If this film has any faults it has to be that the director, who is still finding his feet, has added some strange, if photogenic scenes. A huge field of sunflowers, bright, white sheets blowing in the wind, ghostly spirit lights flowing along a river, many of which are probably alluded to in the book, but would have been better played down on screen. The film deals with a strange enough landscape in reality without taking it into hyper-reality. This is a minor point though in a very good film.
And it would be difficult to find a better soundtrack than this. Hutz's own gypsy-style punk band, Gogol Bordello, supplies most of the music to uproarious effect. You won't believe you are leaving the cinema singing along to a tune called "Start Wearing Purple" in a Ukrainian accent.
Joyce Dundas
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