Review of Everything Is Illuminated (2005) by Allegra F — 07 Jan 2011

I was expecting to like this a lot less. Obviously, the book is much, much better. However, the film incorporates a buoyant score, some great scenery, and a wonderful performance by Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz as Alex to make a cohesive, watchable product.

Both here and in the book, Alex is the stand-out character, and while the way he is depicted here is not how I imagined him at all it works wonderfully (it's also probably more accurate to the text; I tend to ignore textual character descriptions and just go with what "feels right," haha).

It was probably smart to drop the other plot threads, even though they were far more interesting than the one followed here. However, incorporating them would have made the movie a bit more muddled, although I definitely could see incorporating some of JSF's story of Brod in little moments that would better define his character.

The change from him being an author to being a "collector" was not one that better served the narrative; Elijah Wood, while perfectly cast lookswise, turns in a performance that is flat, scared, and unsure of what to do.

I didn't like JSF's character in the book much but at least he had more of a motivation, more of a presence, there. Being a collector just makes him seem like a hobbyist, an intensely passionate one.

Also I was not as fond of the ending used as I was of the one in the book. Grandfather's suicide came out of almost nowhere; while I don't condone beating the audience over the head not making it more obvious that he was Baruch until the end wasn't a good idea.

They should have delved more into that story, as well, because Alex's Grandfather had a very interesting back story. I did like how they treated Lista, though; I found her more "entertaining" here than in the book.

The changes made to her character made the plot neater and tidier, which in this case was a good thing. So while the book was easily better (great book, you should read it), the movie did succeed in several ways, and I was pleasantly surprised.