Everything is Illuminated
One of the best films from 2005 is Liev Schreiber’s fantastic film, Everything is Illuminated. Schreiber makes his directorial debut with this film. He is best known for his acting, as he has been in films such as 2004′s The Manchurian Candidate and was featured in the Scream trilogy of horror films as “Cotton Weary.” So, out of such an unlikely voice comes Everything is Illuminated, a beautiful and colourful film about exploration and the journey to discover new things about the past. This film is a revelation and took me by surprise from the opening frame to the closing credits. I was enthralled throughout this film.
Everything is Illuminated is based on a novel by Jonathan Safron Foer. It follows the story of a young Jewish man named Jonathan, played here wonderfully by Elijah Wood, as he heads out on a quest to find the woman he believes saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map when the Nazis arrived. To accomplish his task, Jonathan dispatches a tourist company that is comprised of a cranky and anti-Semitic grandfather (Boris Leskin) and an enthusiastic semi-Americanized grandson, Alex (Eugene Hutz). The journey starts off with moments of comic disaster, as Alex’s attempts at being friendly are often abrasive and awkward to the subdued character of Jonathan. Nonetheless, as the journey to discover the truth unfolds, the meaning of the journey unfolds with it and “everything is illuminated” as the journey comes to an end.
Elijah Wood is tremendous here. The idea behind his character is all in the eyes. Wood takes what is, to some, a minimalistic approach to the role. If minimalistic now means to not overact, than I agree. But Wood is anything but minimalistic here in the traditional sense. He is passionate, subdued but yet brimming with exploratory energy and a legitimate curiosity about where the journey is taking his character. Wood plays Jonathan not to the extent of other minimalistic performances, like Bill Murray’s bland performances in Lost in Translation and Broken Flowers, but rather with a vibrancy that is belied by the overall mood and colour of the film. Wood guides his character tenderly, not allowing the audience an overabundance of insight into how he acts and what he says, but rather attempting to explain himself the best he can. He collects things, for example, because he just does and because he always has.
The character build is the real substance of Everything is Illuminated. The character of Alex is played to perfection by Hutz, who also happens to be the lead singer of Ukrainian Gypsy Punk band “Gogol Bordello.” Hutz was first introduced to director Schreiber to discuss doing the music for the film. As soon as Hutz opened his mouth at the meeting, it was decided that he would come back and read for the part of Alex. The rest is history and Hutz is astonishing as Alex. His mannerisms and his sense of comic timing, coupled with raw emotion, create such a breadth within this character that it was hard to imagine a more fascinating performance from 2005. Hutz pieces Alex together from childhood memories of the Ukraine and from observations not of American or Western culture, but rather observations of the perceptions of Western culture. Hutz plays Alex like he thinks he should play him, emulating Western culture rather than duplicating it. It is an interesting and compelling comedic twist.
Not to go on about the character of Alex, but what really makes him work is his use of linguistics. Alex knows English, somewhat, but again he knows English in terms of what he thinks English is and not what English actually is. So when he talks to Jonathan, who he observes is attempting to sleep, he asks Jonathan if he is “manufacturing any Z’s.” This, to Alex, is a perfectly natural way to express himself in English. Asking Jonathan if he was close to a relative, Alex asks if he was “proximal to him.” It is this intelligent use of language, as though the character of Alex through Hutz’s lead is attempting to force variations of common words through a sentence and the words are trying to madly escape. The use of language in the script here is astonishing, especially given Hutz’s expert delivery as the character of Alex.
The role of the grandfather is impeccably filled, too, with Boris Leskin. Leskin is a veteran of the theatre and has the perfect face and image for his role in this film. Leskin, relatively unknown, pours himself into the role of the grandfather and has a quiet empathy tempered with a sort of explosive rage within the protectiveness of his loyal companion, the dog Sammy Davis Junior Junior. Leskin transforms the grandfather as the film carries along, at once not wanting to be on the journey and then, in the end, finding a sense of elemental peace through the journey that, through the fog of unanswered questions, enables the old man some true peace and happiness at the end of his magical life.
Everything is Illuminated is beautifully shot from start to finish, too. It was shot in Prague, for the most part, which doubled as a more than capable Ukraine. Schreiber’s direction here is compelling because it really captures the colour and the earthen flow of the landscape, allowing the journey to become a sort of fourth character in the film’s framework. As the events unfold, we are introduced to landscapes and locations that truly have deep character and we discover them, for the first time, with Jonathan as the mystery unfolds and the wonder of this complex place becomes more radiant and apparent. Schreiber’s direction, like the character of Jonathan, is subdued but anything but minimalistic. He directs with a passion, making Everything is Illuminated a truly unique film experience.
I’ve gushed about the film and the performances an awful lot because I think it’s important for people to experience this little film. It is a magical experience and it arrives like a song on the screen, picking out spectacular notes of joy, humour, and immense and catastrophic sadness and haunting guilt. It does this all at once, too, without sacrificing or inhibiting the process at all. Schreiber’s Everything is Illuminated is a powerful and passionate film and should be seen by as many people as possible.
Trailer:
