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Everything Is Illuminated
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (23rd May 2006). |
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The Film
 This is based on the best selling book, of the same name by author Jonathan Safran Foer, which weaves a holocaust tale that sends a young Jewish boy to Eastern Europe in an effort to discover his roots. The compulsive collector of things related to his family and curiosity is his initial motivation. The book was heralded as a work of genius (The Times newspaper) and was poised to become a major feature film in no time. Long-time actor and first-time director Live Schreiber took it unto himself to bring this novel to the big screen and the result is a first feature he can be proud of. Everything is Illuminated tells the story of Jonathan Safran Foer (Elijah Wood) a young American Jew who collects trinkets from his family, preserving them in plastic Ziploc bags and hanging them on a wall dedicated to his family. Just before his grandmother (Jana Hrabetova) passes away she hands him a photograph of a young woman Augustine. This woman helped his grandfather escape during Nazi occupation and the subsequent destruction of his village, Trachimbrod. Jonathan, hungry for information seeks to find this woman and learn about his roots travels to The Ukraine were he hires a young Ukrainian native Alex (Eugene Hutz) to be his guide as he travels the countryside. What ensues is a life changing journey that impacts Jonathan greatly and also creates a bond with his new friend Alex. The novel worked on two levels, it was fragmented between the magical-esque ‘imagined’ story of the villagers at Trachimbrod and the journey in which Jonathan takes written from the perspective of Alex in broken English. The film drops some of the magical elements of Trachimbrod for the more straight narrative tale that Alex weaves, however some quirky off the wall sequences do make their way into the film, the discovery of the village is particularly striking. What’s left is a single house surrounded by tall sunflowers which gives the place a somewhat happy magical otherworldly feel to it, which is in direct juxtaposition with what occurred there 65 odd years ago. This film certainly has a unique flavour to it, if you ever wondered what a film by Wes Anderson and P.T. Anderson would be like, then this is most likely the closest answer. There are moments throughout this film that mirror Wes’ off-the-wall yet subtle brand of humour and also P.T.’s brand of drama delivered by strange and often interesting characters. I can see why it would be hard for Schreiber to find his own voice, it will certainly please those who have read the novel but at the same time may struggle to find a wider audience. Wood’s performance is very quiet and intense, the kind that demonstrates a maturity far beyond his years, he appears to be a middle-aged man trapped in the body of a twenty-something. His bizarre mannerisms and compulsive collecting make for a memorable character though these idiosyncrasies do become tiring and eventually I did find his character a little boring. By far the break-out performance of this film comes from Eugene Hutz, who plays Alex, a character influenced by American Pop Culture, provides the majority of the laugh-out-loud comedic moments in this film and deservedly stole the show. His take on America is twenty years too late, he wears Adidas track suits with gold chains and loves Michael Jackson, he is also a ‘premium dancer that ladies want to get carnal with’. Hutz’s performance is brilliant to say the least, and you’ll find yourself quoting some of his lines after the film, the use of the word ‘premium’ is a must! I did enjoy this film, despite its acceptable runtime it did at times feel long. The film was poignant when it had to be and humorous when required, I hope this film finds an audience on DVD, because it certainly didn’t theatrically. It’s worth a watch and if you’re a fan of the book then it’s a no brainer, if you like either Anderson (Wes or P.T.) you’d also probably like Everything is Illuminated if only because its tone mirrors those two filmmaker’s work.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 widescreen this anamorphic is stunning, the image is sharp and clear, I noticed no print flaws whatsoever. Colors are at times muted and saturated to give the film a nostalgic feel, and the transfer presents this extremely well. Other times color is used to full effect accentuating certain scenes such as the beautiful Ukrainian countryside and the sunflower field in the village of Trachimbrod. Blacks are deep and shadows display fine detail. Warner Brothers continue their tradition of providing decent transfers of recently released films and have done an excellent job with this title.
Audio
This film includes only one audio track in English Dolby Digital 5.1 (although the track is mostly in English there are scenes in the film in Russian which are subtitled) and just like the image it’s impressive. Dialogue is clearly presented here without any distortion; the music makes full use of the 5.1 space and minute atmospheric surrounds are also presented here that allows the viewer to immerse themselves into the film, more so from the music than anything else however. The track suits the film well and never feels overbearing or out of place. Optional subtitles are also included in Arabic, English, English for the hearing impaired, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew and Icelandic.
Extras
First up we have a reel of 7 additional scenes that runs for 18 minutes 29 seconds, the scenes included are: - "The Collector" While at his grandmother’s funeral, Jonathan imagines a scenario involving Hitler, who presents him with an award for his collecting. - "Premium Dancer" is an extended clip that introduces Alex and goes into more detail about his dancing, showing a dance off he has with another club patron. - The Gorky Tickle shows how Alex gets carnal with many women. - Officious Seeing Eye Bitch is an extended scene with Jonathan in the back seat with Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. and enters into a strange fantasy scenario were Jonathan dressed in 70’s duds is ‘erotically’ washing his car while the dog watches dressed in a bikini - yeah weird huh? - "Breakfast" is an extended scene were Alex and his grandfather have a big breakfast and avoid waking Jonathan up because he’s a vegetarian and there’s no point. - "400 Words For Snow" In this scene Alex discovers that Jonathan is a virgin and Jonathan teaches Alex that the Jews have about 400 words for schmuck much like the Eskimos have 400 words for snow. - "The Collector Part 2" is an extended scene after Jonathan has returned to the U.S. and is greeted by a crowd applauding him. Rounding out the extras is the film’s original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 26 seconds. While it’s nice that Warner didn’t entirely cheapen out on this release it would have been great to include at the very least an audio commentary by the director and perhaps even the novelist to provide further insight into the film and the transition from literary piece to film.
Overall
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