Everything is Illuminated

This movie was at the festival on Mon Sept 12 at 9pm but I couldn't see it because I was at Dave Chappelle's Block Party. Instead, Mary Long and I picked it for our movie night out Fri Sept 30 when it opened in Toronto. We loved Everything is Illuminated MMMM and recommend it to friends and family. Other reviewers don't seem to agree.

Written for the screen and directed by Liev Schrieber (he of Scream 3, Manchurian Candidate and Hamlet fame) this is a solid directorial debut. Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, this film is all about the characters - including the dog. Elijah Wood (Jonathan) goes to Ukraine in search of a woman in an old photo who apparently helped his grandfather Safran escape the Nazis. Jonathan is a 'collector' literally collecting things he encounters and bagging them so he won't forget. When he gets to Ukraine, he finds Alex Jr as his 'trusted interpreter' and Alex's grandfather Alex Sr. as the 'certified guide' who says he's blind and won't travel without his 'seeing eye bitch' a hilarious dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. This unlikely band travels through rural Ukraine (the credits suggest it's really Czechoslovakia) in their 'rigid search' for Trachimbrod - the town where the photo was apparently taken. This proves to be tougher than they thought because no one has heard of it.

Alex Jr's English is 'not so premium' but the actor Eugene Hutz he is also the lead singer of Gogol Bordello and wrote and performed much of the music on the movie's soundtrack - a kind of Ukrainian gypsy/pop/klezmer music. I think I'll pick it up to add to my own collection. This film is funny and touching, some scenes are wonderous, and it will make you pine for your own grandparents and past. My brother Steve should be the first to see it.

road trip through Ukraine
everything in the past is
illuminated

P.S. Movie clubbers, our next film is Elizabethtown, then Paradise Now.