The movie is based on the book written by Jonathan Safran Foer. Apparently he even makes a cameo as the leaf blower in the beginning of the movie. The movie was beautifully shot and the story was touching. The movie was recommended to me by ChemChampion and I’d recommend it to anyone else who hasn’t seen it. Listening to Alex (the Russian/English translator) speak was hiliarious. Here are some of my favorite lines:
- … but all of my friends dub me Alex, because this is much more flaccid to utter.
- Many girls want to be carnal with me because I’m such a premium dancer.
- Were you able to manufacture the the Z’s? Repose. Did you repose?
Obivously Alex knows some difficult English words. He’s just one funny guy.
Official Site
IMDb: 7.6/10 (4,608 votes)
Yahoo! Movies: The Critics: B- / Yahoo! Users: B
Rotten Tomatoes: Rating: 66% / Average Rating: 6.5/10
Apple Trailer
Amazon.com DVD
Amazon.com Soundtrack
Spoilers: (Show)
I’m going to be lazy and copy the premise from Amazon.com:
The simplest thing would be to describe Everything Is Illuminated […] as a novel about the Holocaust. […] A young Jewish American–who just happens to be called Jonathan Safran Foer–travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex’s grandfather (also called Alex), and a flatulent mongrel dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. On their journey through Eastern Europe’s obliterated landscape they unearth facts about the Nazi atrocities and the extent of Ukrainian complicity that have implications for Perchov as well as Safran Foer. This narrative is not, however, recounted from (the character) Jonathan Safran Foer’s perspective. It is relayed through a series of letters that Alex sends to Foer. These are written in the kind of broken Russo-English normally reserved for Bond villains or Latka from Taxi. Interspersed between these letters are fragments of a novel by Safran Foer–a wonderfully imagined, almost magical realist, account of life in the shtetl before the Nazis destroyed it. These are in turn commented on by Alex, creating an additional metafictional angle to the tale.
The movie started off like the story of someone who was obsessive compulsive, but it soon became a story to search for the past.
One thing I never really got was the grandfather Alex. What was the reasoning he thought he was blind? Was the world so ugly that he wished he couldn’t see? Obviously he has a very strong connection with the dog, since he would beat his own grandson over it and yell at his son forbidding him to yell at the dog. Maybe the dog to him was like his wife? Then there’s his past. Why was he getting shot? Was he Jewish? And if so, why does he hates the Jew so much? Is it because he was a Jew and also got killed for that? He somehow managed to stay alive, and it was unclear to me what was going on at that scene. The girl seemed to be “collecting items” and he started to walk away, but came back to throw away his jacket. Obviously this was a complicated character, but the jacket may have religious symbolism which I didn’t get. Maybe the act of throwing away that jacket, meant he was giving up his Jewish religion.
His death was the most intriguing thing, though his grandson Alex did sort of explain it as he wanted to die there, probably close to his hometown.
When the boy asked for candy/gum, it totally reminded me of Hostel.
Also, near the ending as Jonathan was coming out of the airport (presumably in America), what the heck was with all those similar faces? What was the meaning of that?
Finally, I thought Jonathan and the dog were getting along so well and the fact that the grandfather died, Alex (the grandson) would’ve given the dog to him as a gift. I mean the dog even guarded Jonathan whiel he slept and didn’ go crazy when Jonathan was around. Oh well.
