Luminous

Liev Schreiber's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" is a charming, tender account of intergenerational and international rapprochement. Foer's novel weaves together several stories. That of our hero, Jonathan Safran Foer, and his "very rigid search" for the woman who saved his grandfather from the nazis (aided by his translator, Ukraine's finest playa, Alex; his grandfather, also named Alex, who is both blind and the only one capable of driving; and grandpa's "seeing-eye bitch," Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.) is played out on film. Schreiber has kept out the parallel story of Trachimbrod, the shtetl home to Jonathan's grandfather (his namesake, Safran), which is perfectly understandable, since it wouldn't work at all, and too bad, because it's the most imaginative part of the story.

The film offers some unlikely pairings: Jonathan, an obsessive collector in constant fear of forgetting to remember, and the sister of Augustine (the woman who saved Safran), who heartfully announces that the search for Trachimbrod is over ("You are here. I am it.") before displaying her extensive collection of Trachimbrod mementos (wedding rings, photos, dust, etc.).

The film works best, though, because of the excellent duo of Alex and Alex, who occupy all the empty space emitted by the little boy lost Elijah Wood. Jonathan's search is really (young) Alex's search - to the heart of his own family history. Foer lovingly and sharply gets to the heart of a grand intergenerational divide. The twist at the end of the story isn't a big surprise, and Schrieber treats it well.

"Everything is Illuminated" is funny and visually stunning. It deals with a ticky subject lightly enough to merit a hearty endorsement.