Some books just aren't meant to be adapted to the screen, and despite a noble effort by director Liev Schreiber, Jonathan Safran Foer's acclaimed novel "Everything is Illuminated" is one of them.
Foer, a 1999 Princeton graduate, burst onto the literary scene with the aforementioned 2002 novel, a loosely autobiographical chronicle of a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- and his quest to find a woman named Augustine, whom he believes saved his grandfather from the Nazis. There are three converging narratives in the novel. The first narrative recalls the history of Jonathan's grandfather. The second narrative follows Jonathan on his actual search through the Ukrainian countryside while being aided by a barely comprehensible translator named Alex, Alex's ostensibly blind grandfather and a "seeing-eye bitch" named Sammy Davis Jr., Jr. Finally, the third narrative focuses on an exchange of letters between Jonathan and Alex after the journey has been completed.
Not unexpectedly, Schreiber's adaptation does not endeavor to match Foer's narrative structure, nor should it. Instead, Schreiber tells the story chronologically from Alex's point of view, using brief flashbacks only when necessary. Fans of the novel will not fault Schreiber for this, but they will certainly take issue with a few plot variations that change -- and even undermine -- some of the novel's key thematic moments.The history of Alex's grandfather (specifically, his role in the war) is altered most egregiously and seemingly unnecessarily. As a result, the ending of the film is much more puzzling than it should be.
As with many other film adaptations of novels, important characters -- in particular Alex's father, Alex's brother and Jonathan's grandfather -- are reduced to peripheral roles. In a novel as rich as "Everything is Illuminated," the cost is severe. Not only are important characters lost, but important symbols are sacrificed as well, with the most significant example being the river in the town of Trochimbrod.
While fans of the novel might be hypercritical of the film, it does have its strengths; in fact, many of the stronger scenes are ones that Schreiber himself invents. (My personal favorite is the street band rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" that greets Jonathan upon his arrival to the Ukrainian train station.)
Elijah Wood's portrayal of Jonathan strays from the novel, but in a quirky and endearing way. Though he has relatively few speaking lines and boasts no lengthy and heartfelt monologues, Wood (in his nerdiest role since "The Ice Storm") turns Jonathan -- a soft-spoken, Jewish-American vegetarian with Coke bottle glasses wandering through Eastern Europe -- into a sympathetic fish-out-of-water character. Eugene Hutz is memorable as Alex, a hip-hop loving club-hopper whose grasp of English is "not so premier." Alex's tenuous grasp of the English language underscores the important -- and often comical -- linguistic divide that the young men face, a barrier as wide as the historical divide that each of them face with their own past.
The past is at the heart of Foer's novel, and Schreiber does a commendable job of staying true to it within the constraints of his medium. The film's flashbacks are well-timed and shot in silent sepia tones that distinguish them from the rest of the scenes in the movie. Rather than telling the stories of the past through forced monologues or extended flashbacks, Schreiber has Jonathan literally collected bits and pieces of his past and string them together into a growing narrative that ultimately leads to his own existence.
Schreiber has the benefit of working with a compelling story and shooting in the sprawling countryside of Prague. The wonderful aesthetics of this film rescue it from its sometimes contrived dialogue -- the film concludes with Alex explaining how "everything is illuminated in the light of the past," a monologue unique to the film that detracts from the novel's subtlety and multiplicity of meaning -- and a musical score that borders on intrusive.
The reviews for this film have been decidedly mixed, and with good reason. The bottom line is that if you've read the book, the movie will prove disappointing. There is too much omitted, and the plot changes unnecessarily alter many of the novel's motivations. Additionally, Alex's broken English, while amusing, cannot be fully appreciated in a theatrical medium; indeed, Foer's use (or misuse) of language is arguably the most extraordinary component of his writing, even earning comparisons to Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange."
Though the film fails to live up to its literary predecessor on several levels, those who have not read the book will still hold the film favorably. Schreiber captures the bittersweet tone of the novel quite well and adds several unique touches of originality to the film that will appeal to even the most critical fans of the novel.
Ultimately, however, after seeing "Everything is Illuminated," Foer fans will almost certainly be ambivalent towards the film adaptation of his second novel "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," to be released in 2007.
