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Everything Is Illuminated
EMAILPRINTWarner Independent Pictures

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Adventure | Comedy | Drama
Written by:
Liev Schreiber
Jonathan Safran Foer (novel)
Directed by: Liev Schreiber
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 16, 2005
DVD: March 21, 2006
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images/violence, sexual content and language
Starring Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz, Boris Leskin, and Laryssa Lauret
Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated tells the story of a young man's quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map by the Nazi invasion. (Warner Independent Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A film that grows in reflection. The first time I saw it, I was hurtling down the tracks of a goofy ethnic comedy when suddenly we entered dark and dangerous territory. I admired the film but did not sufficiently appreciate its arc.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Rambles and sometimes wobbles like a runaway movie. But Schreiber's instincts keep the film frolicsome and vital.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
For one of those obstreperously original books that are themselves impossible to translate, Everything Is Illuminated is impressively well lit.
Read Full Review >Empire Damon Wise
A thoughtful approach to a much-covered topic, mixing prickly issues of roots and genocide with an eye for the surreal and an ear for the earthy.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson
An almost screwball comedy that turns serious.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Though not as far-reaching as the book from which it was adapted, Everything Is Illuminated is a movie with wit, warmth and unabashed emotion.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Actor-turned-first-time-filmmaker Liev Schreiber tosses out most of what made Jonathan Safran Foer's too-clever-by-half debut novel so precious, rooting out the heart of Foer's story from the precocious bombast.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
I have misgivings about Schreiber's use of the well-worn "I'll make you empathize 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.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Not everything is illuminated in his (Liev Schreiber) version, but the book's humanity and humor shine through.
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Schreiber takes Foer's sprawling, multilayered, multigenerational beast and hones it into a post-Glasnost buddy picture; a polished nugget of a road movie, focused mainly on Alex and Jonathan's growing sense of identification with each other and with their origins.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Leave it to Liev: Schreiber capably adds writer-director to his impressive resume with this winning take on the Jonathan Safran Foer novel.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Wood's powerlessness to break out of the emotive straightjacket hands the picture to his Russian costars on a platter, and they run with it.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
This often vivid movie, though it doesn't quite attain its highest intentions, is well worth seeing. And thinking about.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Though Wood is the star, it's Hutz who is the indelible presence.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
There's a daring to Everything Is Illuminated that commends it somewhat more than its achievement deserves.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Whimsically conjures the magic-realist imagery of the novel while pruning the book of its narrative undergrowth. What results is a striking piece of topiary shorn of its vital branches.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Schreiber has one major casting coup in Eugene Hutz, the New York-based Ukrainian/Gypsy/Punk musician who plays Alex.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
And although Schreiber's hip, intelligent eye is a nice match for Foer's hip, intelligent pen, his movie strays from its own history, creating instead a world, as Alex would say, that is "once-removed."
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Everything Is Illuminated hasn't been adapted so much as gutted, stuffed, and mounted.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hank Stuever
A clinically adequate, occasionally above-average art house film. In certain moments, it has all the subtlety and illumination one should ever need.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Schreiber's directing is ambitious, but it is nowhere near the originality and truth in his acting. Throughout the film we can feel him striving to control, to invent, to glisten.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
Schreiber's edits gut the story of its power and punch. His film is strong on comedy and farce, enjoyable as a quirky-friendship gag, but it fails in its attempt at tragedy.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The presentation has verve. But the story is confusingly told - everything is NOT illuminated - and, as the seeker, Elijah Wood is a big blank.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
The problem -- aside from the fact that one of the best things about Foer's story is its irreverent, intricate, just-maybe-brilliant writing -- is what Schreiber has decided to cut.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Alternately mawkish and strident, with lots of fades to white and dog reaction shots, this can be recommended only for its good intentions.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Has a haunting afterglow, one that neither satisfies nor illuminates, but at least keeps the flame alive.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This movie is sloppy and disjointed - an unsatisfying melodrama built upon a shaky foundation of contrivances, coincidences, and plot holes.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Foer's ironic ideas have a lovely roundness to them, and somehow the film achieves Holocaust-fiction balance without much ado or melodrama. It may be substantially less ambitious than its source material, but that may be what saves it from implosion.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Taken on its own, without comparison with its literary source, the movie, Mr. Schreiber's first as writer and director, is thin and soft, whimsical when it should be darkly funny and poignant when it should be devastating.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Everything Is Illuminated is not a fiasco, but in some ways I'd have preferred a fiasco—something overreaching and inchoate instead of this self-consciously artistic mood piece.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Snaps to life too late. But at least there IS life in it. It doesn't hold together as a piece of filmmaking, but there's no doubt it comes from somewhere close to Schreiber's heart.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Wood, whose mostly mute turn is defined by his black suit and glasses, can only stare in stupefaction at Schreiber's jittery mix of broad laughs and sentiment. Audiences will share the feeling.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's as if two-thirds of the book have been reduced to one-word chapter headings.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
But the parts of Foer's lively novel that didn't get cut in the script stage have died on the way to the screen. To be fair, it's not an easy novel to adapt.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Liev Schreiber's film version of "Everything Is Illuminated" achieves the impossible — it's even more annoying than Jonathan Safran Foer's gratingly precocious novel.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Sean D. gave it a7:
I just saw this for the first time - I didn't really know what it was about beforehand or have any expectations, but I had held an interest for a while. The biggest thing I can say about it is that if it doesn't go anywhere (good) it's at least a beautiful ride. Reminded me a lot of "The Science Of Sleep". The scenery/cinematography are beautiful, Alex is very funny, "Jonfen" (Elijah Wood) is attractive as a square. One of the biggest criticisms seems to be that it doesn't carry the gravitas of the Holocaust very well, but I don't think that was necessarily the point (of the film.) It's easy to be depressed by the the history, rightfully so, but the intent seemed to be remembering. If it didn't have the best point, it was nonetheless a very enjoyable ride.
John G. gave it a10:
I watched once and was lost Watched it a second time and was amazed.
John O gave it a7:
I found this by pure chance on TV last night and I'm glad because I had absolutely no preconceptions of what to expect, having never heard of either the book or the film. As with 99% of adaptations, people (my girlfriend) who have read the book will perhaps expect too much from it. Yes, perhaps the characters aren't fully realised but it is nonetheless very charming and sensitive without feeling the need to outrage or melodramatise. It will probably be criticised too by some for being erratic but for me at least this added to the film's eccentricity and its overall appeal.
Matt B. gave it a5:
The movie cuts the most poignant sections of the novel, entirely eliminating the "flashbacks" to the writer's resulting novel. Added character quirks don't improve upon those in Safran Foer's novel and move the film into the realm of kitsch. If you liked the film, read the book. The film is a pale reflection.
Anders gave it a9:
A charming and interesting film - It is a bit slow, but in a lovely sort of way.
Peter A. gave it an8:
Excellent, sensitive film. Sometimes it's easier to deal with tragedy by indulging in a little humor.
Tim A. gave it a9:
Only the criminally jaded and terminally hip will fail to appreciate this trip from light, to dark, and back again.
