Elijah Wood plays Jonathan Safran Foer, a young Jewish man whose grandparents emigrated from the Ukraine during WWII. Jonathan is a collector. He collects family items - pictures, bits of clothing, keys, false teeth, eyeglasses, whatever - seals them in zip lock bags and staples them to the wall of his room. When he discovers a ring and an old photograph of his grandfather standing with his arm around a woman known only as Augustina, Jonathan travels to the Ukraine to find out who she is. In Odessa, Jonathan is met by his guides, the hip-hop wannabe Alex (Eugene Hultz), Alex's grumpy grandfather (Stephen Samudovsky), and the grandfather's "seeing eye bitch" Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr. The four embark on a road trip across the Ukraine - and back through time - searching for Augustina. Eventually they discover another collector - an old woman who has been gathering up the scattered belongings of the citizens of the village she once lived in, a village that the Nazis wiped off the map during the Holocaust. Does she know Augustina? She does indeed, and the truths hidden in her collection reveal profound secrets that will change the lives of all of the characters. Everything Is Illuminated is a bittersweet film that delves into one of the most painful chapters in the world's history. At first I laughed until I cried; slowly my tears of laughter turned to sorrow. But tears have a cathartic effect, and I felt better afterwards. You may too. Or, you just may wonder what the hell is wrong with me!
Everything is Illuminated is rated PG-13.
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