Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Everything is Illuminated

So we saw Everything is Illuminated over the weekend. I liked the book ok. I couldn't get as excited or agitated as other people seemed to over the book and its author.

The film represented Liev Schrieber's foray into screenwriting and directing, and I wanted it to be good. I liked LS well enough in Manchurian Candidate rehash, after all.

Bad news: the screenwriting and direction weren't good. I was surprised it got put out the way it came out, and more surprised that I haven't seen more bad reviews.

Excised from the book were all the flashbacks. A bunch of plot things were fairly redone. The Jonathan Safran Foer character was reduced to "the Collector". How many reels of film were spent on Elijah Woods' face?

Unfortunately, this was one of those movies where all the funny bits were put in the trailer. You sit in the theater waiting for something else funny, but it's not coming.

The gogol bordello guy was ok as the translator. He'll probably get to do some other movie stuff after this, and good for him.

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