| Sensitive, harrowing, funny - great balance, great film |
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| written by HPearson |
October 20, 2007 - 8:17 AM PDT |
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0 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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| One of my favorite movies I've seen in a long time. It's a very emotional film (which to me is a positive thing), and I think that it does a great job of lightening the very harrowing subject matter of the Holocaust through the presentation of comical and quirky characters. The film achieves a great balance between comedy and tragedy. |
| A great indie flick |
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| written by sthussey |
January 21, 2007 - 6:49 PM PST |
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1 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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| I thought the movie was fantastic throughout. It relies more on character development than on plot for entertainment. All three main characters bring a approachable point of view to the story and the ending is not obvious until you get there. I would certainly recommend anyone watch this. |
| Holocaust-Lite |
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| written by talltale |
March 20, 2006 - 2:19 AM PST |
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6 out of 8 members found this review helpful
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Liev Schreiber is such a fine actor--so specific, original and true--that it comes as a shock to witness the nearly complete botch of a film he's written and directed called EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED. Based on the famous novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (unread by me, so I'm not comparing), the film comes off like one long, unbelievable cliché, with a single redeeming feature: A Russian narrator who mangles the English language in a cute and occasionally clever manner. Otherwise, this simplistic "search for family roots" reduces the Jewish holocaust yet again to a cheap and ugly nasty-Nazi incident.
Schrieber's way with visuals allows for a lot of sentimentality (the key house is set in the middle of a field of endless sunflowers, and there are too many long, "meaningful" close-ups of eyes, sometimes welling with tears). Plot-wise, the so-called "search" is solved so easily as to be ridiculous, and the acting will win no prizes. Elijah Wood performs like a one-note, smiling zombie; Eugene Hutz as his Russian counterpart is a lot more interesting/convincing; and the dog, played by a canine duo, can sure bare a neat set of fangs. Overall, though: tiresome claptrap. |
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