Personal, but
Flawed Film
By Josh Marks
The real star of
"Everything Is Illuminated," the new film by actor and first-time
director/screenwriter Liev Schrieber
("Manchurian Candidate"), is Boris Leskin.
The Russian actor plays a Ukrainian tour guide who helps "rich American
Jews" find the shtetl
where their ancestors lived. He is haunted by an event during World War II and
it is interesting to see everything come full circle at the end.
Elijah Wood plays a young man who goes
on a quest to find the woman who possibly saved his grandfather during the war
in their Ukrainian village that was destroyed by the Nazis. He solicits help
from the tour company and what follows is a sometimes awkward, surreal and at
times poignant encounter with the grandfather and grandson tour guides played
by Leskin and Eugene Hutz.
In real life Hutz plays in a Ukrainian Gypsy Punk
band and both actors bring realism to their roles that an American actor would
have a difficult time replicating.
The movie is based on the Jonathan Safran Foer novel of the same
name. In his adaptation, Schrieber has made a very
personal and flawed film. In interviews he has described his coming to terms
with his own family history during the making of "Everything Is
Illuminated," which was actually shot on location in
There is also a personal side to Wood's
obsession with collecting family artifacts. Schrieber
has said he has a poor memory and is worried about forgetting important things.
There is not enough character
development at the beginning and the set up and the actual journey could have
been fleshed out more. For example, it is not fully explained why Wood's
character is so obsessive about the woman who saved the life of his grandfather
and why he is suddenly compelled to travel to Eastern Europe to find out. There
are also some pacing problems during the road trip as it drags on a little too
long.
Boris Leskin
is humorous, endearing and ultimately heartbreaking as the grandfather who
pretends he is blind and owns a dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior. His eyes
display a past that he has not reconciled with and it is the most interesting
part of the movie watching him come to terms with his sordid history.
While not a perfect film,
"Everything Is Illuminated" is a solid directorial debut for Schrieber. He chose a good novel to work with and did the
right thing in deciding to shoot on location and in his decision to cast Leskin and Hutz in their roles.
In making such a personal film, Schrieber has
conveyed a universal theme of coming to terms with and remembering the past.