Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Buzz: Everything is Illuminated 2005

En route to Trachimbrod: image credits [here]


Ahh, where do I begin with this one? In truth, the film snob in me considered abandoning ship, but this line preyed upon my inner-pubescent and made me chortle mercilessly. I'm so glad that I did, Everything is Illuminated is my latest "Buzz" film pick.

Alex: Many girls want to be carnal with me because I'm such a premium dancer.


Everything is Illuminated is a film about purpose and pain, about history and legacy. Jonathan Sarfan Foer (Elijah Wood), a Jewish American, is on an Eastern European junket in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis during WWII.

His tour is supervised by a local agency owned and operated by a Ukrainian family. Accompanying him are an erratic dog, the crotchety old man for whom the dog serves as "officious seeing eye bitch" and his grandson and translator, Alex (Evgeny Aleksandrovitch Nikolaev Simonov). Alex's "Negro digging, premium penis-possessing and, dancing" talent, coupled with his precocious use of the English language (as demonstrated in the quote above) provide the comedic backdrop that helps keep you afloat as the trip comes to a sinking close, and the painful history of Foer's family and troubling fate of Alex's comes to fruition.

Everything is Illuminated delivers exactly what the title suggests, it sheds light on both sides of the great divide. This film is rich with humor and depth, exceptional cinematography and an incredible soundtrack. It is available for immediate viewing on Netflix
.




Peace and illumination

3 comments:

Amy said...

I actually rented this movie from the library (it's free, so I check out a lot of movies with my books)...anyway, the darn DVD didn't work! Ughh..I guess that's what you get for free. I plan to watch it sometime soon, though!

Jennifer said...

Ooooh, sounds interesting! Nice review :)

A Cuban In London said...

Good review and one film I would be interested to see. Many thanks.

Greetings from London.

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