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78
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73
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71
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71
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70
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65
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64
Wanted
64
Pineapple Express
63
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61
Incredible Hulk, The
60
Traitor
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
House Bunny, The
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Rocker, The
52
Longshots, The
51
Mamma Mia!
51
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
43
Meet Dave
42
Death Race
36
Space Chimps
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Mirrors
34
Happening, The
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
26
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24
Love Guru, The
19
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15
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15
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Edge of Heaven, The
86
Up the Yangtze
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Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Momma's Man
85
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Tell No One
82
Frozen River
81
Trouble the Water
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Order of Myths, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
78
Last Mistress, The
77
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76
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75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
74
Mongol
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Secret, A
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
72
I.O.U.S. A
71
To the Limit
71
Girl Cut in Two, A
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
67
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67
Jellyfish
66
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66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
66
American Teen
66
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65
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64
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64
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63
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|
Everything Is Illuminated
Warner Independent Pictures
MPAA 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)
| GENRE(S): |
Adventure
|
Comedy
|
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Liev Schreiber
Jonathan Safran Foer (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Liev Schreiber
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 21, 2006
Theatrical: September 16, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
100 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

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...
88
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.

83
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Rambles and sometimes wobbles like a runaway movie. But Schreiber's instincts keep the film frolicsome and vital.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
For one of those obstreperously original books that are themselves impossible to translate, Everything Is Illuminated is impressively well lit.

80
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.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson
An almost screwball comedy that turns serious.

75
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.

75
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.

75
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.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Not everything is illuminated in his (Liev Schreiber) version, but the book's humanity and humor shine through.
70
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.

70
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.

70
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.

70
Time
Richard Schickel
This often vivid movie, though it doesn't quite attain its highest intentions, is well worth seeing. And thinking about.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Though Wood is the star, it's Hutz who is the indelible presence.

67
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
There's a daring to Everything Is Illuminated that commends it somewhat more than its achievement deserves.

63
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.

63
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.

63
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."

63
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Everything Is Illuminated hasn't been adapted so much as gutted, stuffed, and mounted.

60
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.

60
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.

60
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.

58
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.

50
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.

50
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.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Has a haunting afterglow, one that neither satisfies nor illuminates, but at least keeps the flame alive.

50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
This movie is sloppy and disjointed - an unsatisfying melodrama built upon a shaky foundation of contrivances, coincidences, and plot holes.

50
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.

50
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.

50
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.

50
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.

50
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.

50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
It's as if two-thirds of the book have been reduced to one-word chapter headings.

50
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.

25
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.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
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