Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director :
Liev Schreiber
Cast :
Eugene Hutz……….Alex
Elijah Wood……….Jonathan
Boris Leskin……….Grandfather
The Movie
2005 was a great year for Elijah Wood. Starting off the year with a prominent role in Sin City, Wood’s best work wasn’t seen by most audiences. Both Green Street Hooligans and Everything is Illuminated had small releases to few theatres, as Wood followed the steps of many actors and sought to expand his acting resume beyond Lord of the Rings fame.
Wood masterfully stars as Jonathan in Everything is Illuminated. Jonathan is a man who collects things about his family, Ukrainian-born Jews who fled the Nazis for a better life in America. A picture of his grandfather and the woman who saved him from the Nazis in the Ukraine is the latest thing he’s collected. The picture fascinates him and he journeys to the Ukraine to find the woman, along the way finding out a lot of things about himself and his family.
Based off the best selling book by Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated is a much different Wood than he’s shown in the past as he shows a good comic presence in the goofiness of the situation. And it’s definitely unique as upon arriving into the Ukraine Jonathan is met by his travel guides: a translator named Alex (Eugene Hutz), Alex’s grandfather (Boris Leskin) and his Seeing Eye dog Sammy Davis Junior Junior. With a solid cast working well in both sides of the equation, what begins as a light-hearted subtle comedy slowly develops into a gut-turning human drama.
The comedy aspect of Everything is Illuminated is subtle and dry, yet wonderfully entertaining. The film relies on several gags, including Jonathan’s personality quirks, to drive the dry comedy aspect. While several don’t work early on, credit Liev Schreiber for being able to realize this and not pound upon the same unfunny joke repeatedly. The ones that work are used, the ones that don’t are dropped relatively quickly; some of the comedy bits don’t work but aren’t continually used. What also helps is the focused narrative, provided with commentary by Alex.
Alex’s narration allows the film to focus and maintain a steady pace and timing. The commentary isn’t needed at certain points and isn’t used for those. Schreiber has done a masterful of not overusing Alex’s comments, as they provide a refresher from more of the intense moments of the film. But the key to the film is the gradual insertion of the dramatic aspects.
Schreiber uses a slow burn aspect to his drama, as he slowly builds it up during the road trip. What starts out as a serious road trip scattered with comedy turns into a character building venture. It’s well-designed too; Schreiber builds to a gut-wrenching, well-designed final twenty minutes that culminate with characters who have developed, changed and been affected by the events of their trek.
Score : 9 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen format with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the film has a great transfer from the big screen to the small one. The colors are sharp and defined, looking great.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format, the film has a well-developed sound. There’s a lot of subtlety to the score and this is a dialogue-based film so the audio track isn’t going to test any audio system, but there’s a richness and fullness to it that helps the movie come alive.
The Extras
Deleted scenes are the usual sort of things excised from a film for time and plot constraints. Much of what was cut from Everything is Illuminated was mainly for time, as there’s a lot of good stuff that was cut for timing, pace and length reasons. There’s a lot of good stuff with Alex, giving him a bit more of development in terms of his character. At about 20 minutes there’s a substantial amount of quality stuff remaining.
The Theatrical Trailer is also included.
Score : 4.5 / 10
