May 18, 2007

illumination

As Winter (not incorrectly) pointed out, Unemployed Kallie watches many, many movies these days (party due to the miracle of DVR and to the HBO channels we get for another month). Today i found 'Everything Is Iluminated', starring Elijah Wood and directed by Liev Schrieber. What begins as a quirky, odd-couple type film about an eccentric and withdrawan Jewish man (Wood) teamed with Alex, a hip-hop loving, Adidas-and-Kangol-clad Ukrainian tour guide in search of the woman who helped his grandfather escape the Nazis, slowly becomes a very moving story of past and secrets and family. Rounding out the cast is Alex's Grandfather, who pretends to be blind so he can have his "Officious Seeing Eye Bitch", Sammy Davis Jr Jr, by his side at all times, even though Sammy is a deranged dog adopted from the Center for Forgetful Animals. Alex is the translator and his broken English is funny and Jonathan (Wood) is an odd guy who doesn't speak any Russian or eat any meat, and is afraid of dogs. (Sorry SD,JJ) As they search for the apparently invisible village of Trechnibrod, Grandfather begins to take particular interest in their journey and his character becomes more than just 'grumpy old man'. The movie ends beautifully without losing sight of its original oddball flavor.

Everything is illuminated in the light of the past.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes. oh yes. that is a really good movie. or as alex would say, "prime."
at least, that's what i think he said. it's been a while.

Anonymous said...

I used to have a huge childhood crush on Elijah Wood. I just felt like I needed to confess that you you Kallie. I'll have to rent the movie.

Anonymous said...

Close, he calls everything 'premium'. And i liked when he asked 'Jonfen' if he 'had proximity with' his grandfather, instead of saying 'Were you close to your grandfather?' Good stuff.

Katie, i am not the least bit surprised by your confession.