Movieo
Poster for Everything Is Illuminated

Everything Is Illuminated

Leave Normal Behind.

2005 · 1h 46m · PG-13 Comedy, Drama
Directed by Liev Schreiber

Seen it?

Overview

A young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II—in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
65%
Tomatometer
Fresh

It's funny and warm, with the sting of the horrific event that triggered the trip giving it a melancholy feel.

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Fresh

It's profound in the way that life is profound in hindsight, its view of the past both fixed in history and mutable in the telling. And it's exquisitely tender.

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle
Rotten

This isn't a frivolous film or a dumb one. Mostly, it feels like a mistake -- the wrong director matched with the wrong material.

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fresh

[Schreiber] has managed something of a feat ... in spinning a single charming story out of Foer's yarn ball of a novel, which spanned 200 years, multiple stories and various protagonists.

Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Rotten

Schreiber effectively incorporates some of the novel's humor, most of which revolves around Alex's amusingly improvisational English, but never comes close to mining the book's true substance or heartbreak.

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

Comments

Talk about the film with other members

More films