Film Reviews

Everything is Illuminated

• Rating:
• Director: Liev Schreiber
• Starring: Elijah Wood
• Details: Ukraine, 105mins, 12s.

Jonathan (Wood) is a neurotic Jewish-American who collects family heirlooms: anything from false teeth to used condoms. When his dying grandmother gives him an old photo of his dead grandfather with an unidentified woman - who allegedly helped him escape from the Nazis during the onset of WWII - it ignites a curiosity in his European roots. So Jonathan makes the journey to the Ukraine and hires hip-hop enthusiast Alex (Hutz) and his anti-Semitic grandfather (Leskin) to help him search for the woman in question, but as they draw closer to the small town where the woman is rumoured to be living, Alex's grandfather starts to get a little uneasy as he begins to remember things long forgotten. Adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's quirky novel, first time director Schreiber delivers the most original piece of work this year. Taking a little of Wes Anderson's left-of-centre direction, Schreiber finds his own feet in no time at all and continually keeps the guessing games coming as to where this story will go. It begins with Wood travelling to Lithuania, but just as the film is taken over by Hutz and his English-but-not-as-we-know-it narration - "Girls want to be carnal with me because I'm such a premium dancer" - the action then centres on the grandfather; harbouring some half-forgotten secrets, he becomes increasingly erratic. Moving from light-hearted comedy to serious melancholy, Schreiber shifts the focus of the story effortlessly, taking the audience along for an intriguing ride.

Review by Gavin Burke