Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
Everything Is Illuminated (2005) 8/10
I wasn’t exactly hopeful about a film which has Elijah Wood as the main lead of the film, since i feel that, like Orlando Bloom, Elijah still doesn’t have the gravitas to carry off a film by himself. Thus i was most pleasantly surprised when i was impressed by Elijah Wood’s performance. Just look at that hair and oversized specs!
Everything Is Illuminated is a quirky road trip movie that deals with memories, cultural difference and does it with panache. In many ways, it reminds me of Elizabethtown because both films are worthy of the most-number-of-songs-you-can-cram-in-a-nonmusical film award. Its like every few minutes there is yet another funky soundtrack. Seriously, Everything Is Illuminated will make an awesome triple bill alongside Elizabethtown and Broken Flowers.
There is one scene that alone justifies the ticket price: The scene in the field of sunflowers. It is absolutely amazingly unbelievably beautiful. I don’t know if its CGI or real. Probably its real, and if it is then i’ll make visiting Ukraine one of the things i absolutely have to do before i die. And while it may be a quirky and generally funny film, there are also powerfully moving, albeit manipulative scenes towards the end.
Seriously, its worth watching for the sunflower scene, which seems to be just surreal scene taken out of a Tim Burton film.
