I had never heard of this movie before seeing the DVD in the rental store, but the strong imagery on the packaging suggested a cinematographically beautiful piece of eye candy, with melancholy themes, so I decided to give it a try.
Everything is Illuminated is basically a road movie, about a quiet, reserved American Jew trying to find out about his recently deceased grandfather's Ukrainian past. As he himself is pretty useless, he hires a Ukrainian family-run tour company, who specialise in tracking down Jewish ancestry of rich Americans.
The problem with the movie isn't in the story (though it is never quite clear who the main character is, the American or his guide, and the entire film relies heavily on a huge coincidence for its drama). The problem is that the movie is trying very, very hard to achieve certain effects, and the viewer can hear the machine creaking in the background. For me, it was the music that ruined the film, as about 80% of the film uses Ukrainian folk music as motor for the on-screen action. The comic effect of the music does not make the relatively bland footage on screen funny - it tells us that the film makers wanted it to be funny, but failed. The narration is the same, trying to be funny by using a broken English with a quaint style to it, but without actually ever having anything funny to say (a joke which wears thin 5 minutes into the film, and never really gets a good laugh anyway).
It's also a bit disappointing to have an entire movie centred around the theme of "Oh, those Ukrainians, aren't they quaint?" - Where's the point in a movie that tries to explore historic past and a foreign culture if all it can do is use the foreigners as (not particularly funny) comedic sidekicks to a particularly bland non-hero? The closest comparison to "Everything is Illuminated" that I can think of is "Sahara", of all movies. Both movies try to project an emotion onto the screen by playing loud, obtrusive music at every opportune or inopportune moment, both movies have a huge, discernible difference between what the film makers think it is, and how it works on an audience (Sahara thinks it's adventurous fun, and is just crap, and Illuminated thinks it's funny and dramatic, and is just bland), both films had tall aims and low achievements.
In the end, the film was a sore disappointment, not living up to the beauty of its packaging.
Everything is Illuminated is basically a road movie, about a quiet, reserved American Jew trying to find out about his recently deceased grandfather's Ukrainian past. As he himself is pretty useless, he hires a Ukrainian family-run tour company, who specialise in tracking down Jewish ancestry of rich Americans.
The problem with the movie isn't in the story (though it is never quite clear who the main character is, the American or his guide, and the entire film relies heavily on a huge coincidence for its drama). The problem is that the movie is trying very, very hard to achieve certain effects, and the viewer can hear the machine creaking in the background. For me, it was the music that ruined the film, as about 80% of the film uses Ukrainian folk music as motor for the on-screen action. The comic effect of the music does not make the relatively bland footage on screen funny - it tells us that the film makers wanted it to be funny, but failed. The narration is the same, trying to be funny by using a broken English with a quaint style to it, but without actually ever having anything funny to say (a joke which wears thin 5 minutes into the film, and never really gets a good laugh anyway).
It's also a bit disappointing to have an entire movie centred around the theme of "Oh, those Ukrainians, aren't they quaint?" - Where's the point in a movie that tries to explore historic past and a foreign culture if all it can do is use the foreigners as (not particularly funny) comedic sidekicks to a particularly bland non-hero? The closest comparison to "Everything is Illuminated" that I can think of is "Sahara", of all movies. Both movies try to project an emotion onto the screen by playing loud, obtrusive music at every opportune or inopportune moment, both movies have a huge, discernible difference between what the film makers think it is, and how it works on an audience (Sahara thinks it's adventurous fun, and is just crap, and Illuminated thinks it's funny and dramatic, and is just bland), both films had tall aims and low achievements.
In the end, the film was a sore disappointment, not living up to the beauty of its packaging.