Kathmandu:

They say travel broadens the mind and in the surreal movie Everything Is Illuminated your mind takes in magic, wonder, lunatic fun, tragedy and raises questions that you are left to answer. In short, it’s a movie that is good and worth seeing as critics have concurred.

Bret Fetzer the critic writes, “Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated stars Elijah Wood as Jonathan Safran Foer, a young Jewish man who wants to learn how his grandfather escaped from the Nazi incursions into Russia. From the US, he hires the hip-hop loving Alex (Eugene Hutz, leader of the gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello) and his surly grandfather (Boris Leskin, Men in Black) as tour guides — only to discover, when he arrives in Odessa that they are perhaps less than dependable. Adapted and directed by Liev Schreiber (best known as an actor in The Daytrippers and The Manchurian Candidate), Everything is Illuminated is also full of delightful dialogue, vivid characters, and oddball yet affecting scenes. Wood is his usual charming and neurotic self, but Hutz steals the show with the help of his wonderfully fractured English and his soulful eyes.”

Film writer Brian Marder believes, “Everything Is Illuminated has a top-notch ensemble cast, with Wood turning in the film’s third-best performance. His minimalist performance is subtle and unobtrusive in a way that adds to Foer’s mystique and ultimate growth. It also allows Hutz and Leskin to shine — and boy, do they ever. In his acting debut, Hutz absolutely steals the movie. He is, at times hilarious, providing the necessary comic relief as an appropriate symbol of what America represents to its faceless admirers abroad. Then, at other times, Hutz is devastating and pensive, mostly when he removes his hat and exposes his face, revealing a vulnerability that contrasts his flamboyant personality. Perhaps it’s not such a departure for Hutz, who in his own life is an American transplant and front man of underground punk band Gogol Bordello. Then there’s Leskin, who only has a few American films to his credit, but a wide and varied career in European cinema. Although his appearances are brief, he shines through, as his character’s arc involves the full emotional spectrum, ending with illumination.

Illuminated is really director Schreiber’s baby, his own labour of love. Having adapted Foer’s novel himself, its themes truly hit home for the actor-turned-director, whose own late grandfather survived the Holocaust. But the film’s journey to the big screen hasn’t been easy. It’s taken about four years to get the film made and finally released. With a mixture of exotic music and offbeat humor, he successfully brings a story that might have been better suited for television.”

Reviewer Glenn Kenny ends by saying, “I have misgivings about Schreiber’s use of the well-worn ‘I’ll make you empathise with these Others, but first let’s have laughs at their expense’ approach, but eventually I was won over by his humane, moving road trip.”