Review of Everything Is Illuminated (2005) by Michael B — 06 Sep 2008

I really liked it. It felt like two movies wrapped into one. The first half felt like a Ukranian Darjeeling Lt. with a very strange interpreter who loves black people and his grandfather who insists on bringing along his demented seeing eye bitch.

However, as the second half of the movie rolls around, the film takes on a whole new light. (Get it, light? The pun is intended.) The title suits its name. While it is easy to guess what is going to happen early on, the emotional reaction is not so easy to be prepared for.

It's a quiet look at what true devastation looks like in the past, present, and future. Indeed, time runs in parallels. The past changes the present. The present changes the past. Both lead us into the future with solemn but steady hearts.

I'm not usually a fan of movies about Jewish people in WWII. Usually it feels so done. This really is something special, though. It's light on its feet and trampled by gravity at the same time.

The end was a nice little mediation on the act of writing and the relationship between fiction and fact. Very well done.