Everything is Illuminated: Memory and Regret Illuminated

Actor Liev Schreiber's directorial debut, Everything is Illuminated, tells the unusual tale of Jonathan Safran Foer (Elijah Wood), a young American who goes to Ukraine to locate the woman who saved his Jewish grandfather's life during World War II.

Adapted from Foer's book of the same name, the story is told through the eyes of Alex (Eugene Hutz), the Ukrainian translator and guide who accompanies Jonathan on his journey to Trachimbrod. Along for the ride are Alex's anti-Semitic grandfather (Boris Leskin), who claims to be blind, even though he is the official driver for the trip, and his "seeing-eye bitch," a dog named Sammy Davis, Jr., Junior.

The film suffers from a deficiency in character development. That doesn't mean these characters are uninteresting, only that their development in the film progresses sluggishly. In fact, overall,the film develops in an uneven manner. For almost the first half of the film, we are given a mildly amusing comedy that plays on typical cultural differences between Americans and Ukrainians. Much of that comedy is supposed to come from the rather goofy character, Alex, who sports hip-hop style clothing, breakdances in clubs, and speaks in a broken English. There are shades of Jim Jarmusch subtlety, but mostly, it's Yakov Smirnoff-style humor.

Jonathan is the opposite, a serious young man with enormous glasses, and a penchant for collecting everything. He has keepsakes from every interesting moment in life, so he won't forget it. This includes his deceased grandmother's false teeth, dirt from places he's been, all sorts of unconventional mementoes. While this quirk lends itself to the film's charm, we don't learn much more about Jonathan, and that is a shame.

It isn't until the second half of the film that we start to see the real heart of the story. At this point, there is a shift, both in the story's focus and in the style in which it is told. The silly cultural stereotypes recede and the mystery of Trachimbrod is finally explored, leading to the "illumination" of the title. Alex is no longer the focus. We hear less of his voice-over. He becomes quieter, listening more and observing more, which gives us space to do the same. At this point, the anti-Semitism of Alex' grandfather is brought to light, and we see the connection between all of the characters, in different ways.

The latter half redeems the first, but just barely. Once we get past the silly cultural stereotypes and broad humor, a picture of regret emerges, where each character's relationship to his/her past is questioned. As the film ends, the second half is all we really remember of the film, and that's a good thing.

Everything is Illuminated is a rather conventional film in quirky clothing. It has its charm, but the one thing that needs to be illuminated - the main characters - happens late. Wood and Leskin are excellent in their quiet portrayals. Hutz does a good job with what he has, but his character is pretty flat to begin with. The result is an uneven, but thought-provoking film about the past and how we choose to remember or forget it.