Everything is Illuminated

Yesterday in an attempt to see Jim Jarmush's Broken Flowers on one of the two functions still playing (West Boylston Theater) around here, I was happily surprised by this film. At the moment of getting the tickets for BF the girl at the counter tells us that there is a scratch in the entire film and we could go and see how bad it was before buying them. After checking the green strobe light in the middle of the screen we decided to see what else was playing. Our first option was The Constant Gardner but it was 5 minutes into the film already. An Elijah Wood movie was playing that, after some inquire we decided to give a chance. The movie starts with a freakishly looking Jonathan (Wood) at her grandmother's death bed, continues with a flashback of a child Jonathan at his grandfather's funeral and illustrates us about his slightly creepy collection habit. After this we are introduced to the main characters and proceed with the "rigid search". The storytelling is very interesting, jumping between past and present. The choice of having all the Ukraine characters (all except for Alex (Eugene Hutz) who is a "premier" character and translator) speak their native language gives the story a realistic geographic anchor . There has been a healthy amount of great films with WWII and the holocaust as central themes, but this one manages to "illuminate" in a different way both the large, because of the setting and small scale of those times thanks to the deep personal nature of the story. The story is based on the novel (by Jonathan Safran Foer) and how the author seeks a woman in a small town that saved his grandfather. The acting is very moving, specially Alex's Grandfather (Boris Leskin), who doesn't say a lot pleasant things but tells a very sad and regretful story thru his eyes. Photography and Music of old and modern times make this film shine in a seldom seen part of the world that is full of memories and melancholy.

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