Everything Is Illuminated
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) | Release Date: September 16, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A film that grows in reflection. The first time I saw it, I was hurtling down the tracks of a goofy ethnic comedy when suddenly we entered dark and dangerous territory. I admired the film but did not sufficiently appreciate its arc. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
For one of those obstreperously original books that are themselves impossible to translate, Everything Is Illuminated is impressively well lit. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Rambles and sometimes wobbles like a runaway movie. But Schreiber's instincts keep the film frolicsome and vital. Read full review
80
EmpireDamon Wise
A thoughtful approach to a much-covered topic, mixing prickly issues of roots and genocide with an eye for the surreal and an ear for the earthy. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
I have misgivings about Schreiber's use of the well-worn "I'll make you empathize with these Others, but first let's have laughs at their expense" approach, but eventually I was won over by his humane, moving road trip. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Though not as far-reaching as the book from which it was adapted, Everything Is Illuminated is a movie with wit, warmth and unabashed emotion. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Actor-turned-first-time-filmmaker Liev Schreiber tosses out most of what made Jonathan Safran Foer's too-clever-by-half debut novel so precious, rooting out the heart of Foer's story from the precocious bombast. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
An almost screwball comedy that turns serious. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Leave it to Liev: Schreiber capably adds writer-director to his impressive resume with this winning take on the Jonathan Safran Foer novel. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Wood's powerlessness to break out of the emotive straightjacket hands the picture to his Russian costars on a platter, and they run with it. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Not everything is illuminated in his (Liev Schreiber) version, but the book's humanity and humor shine through.
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Schreiber takes Foer's sprawling, multilayered, multigenerational beast and hones it into a post-Glasnost buddy picture; a polished nugget of a road movie, focused mainly on Alex and Jonathan's growing sense of identification with each other and with their origins. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
This often vivid movie, though it doesn't quite attain its highest intentions, is well worth seeing. And thinking about. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Though Wood is the star, it's Hutz who is the indelible presence. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
There's a daring to Everything Is Illuminated that commends it somewhat more than its achievement deserves. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
And although Schreiber's hip, intelligent eye is a nice match for Foer's hip, intelligent pen, his movie strays from its own history, creating instead a world, as Alex would say, that is "once-removed." Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Everything Is Illuminated hasn't been adapted so much as gutted, stuffed, and mounted. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Whimsically conjures the magic-realist imagery of the novel while pruning the book of its narrative undergrowth. What results is a striking piece of topiary shorn of its vital branches. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Schreiber has one major casting coup in Eugene Hutz, the New York-based Ukrainian/Gypsy/Punk musician who plays Alex. Read full review
60
Washington PostHank Stuever
A clinically adequate, occasionally above-average art house film. In certain moments, it has all the subtlety and illumination one should ever need. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Schreiber's directing is ambitious, but it is nowhere near the originality and truth in his acting. Throughout the film we can feel him striving to control, to invent, to glisten. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
Schreiber's edits gut the story of its power and punch. His film is strong on comedy and farce, enjoyable as a quirky-friendship gag, but it fails in its attempt at tragedy. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The presentation has verve. But the story is confusingly told - everything is NOT illuminated - and, as the seeker, Elijah Wood is a big blank. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This movie is sloppy and disjointed - an unsatisfying melodrama built upon a shaky foundation of contrivances, coincidences, and plot holes. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Foer's ironic ideas have a lovely roundness to them, and somehow the film achieves Holocaust-fiction balance without much ado or melodrama. It may be substantially less ambitious than its source material, but that may be what saves it from implosion. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
But the parts of Foer's lively novel that didn't get cut in the script stage have died on the way to the screen. To be fair, it's not an easy novel to adapt. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Taken on its own, without comparison with its literary source, the movie, Mr. Schreiber's first as writer and director, is thin and soft, whimsical when it should be darkly funny and poignant when it should be devastating. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
It's as if two-thirds of the book have been reduced to one-word chapter headings. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Everything Is Illuminated is not a fiasco, but in some ways I'd have preferred a fiasco—something overreaching and inchoate instead of this self-consciously artistic mood piece. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Snaps to life too late. But at least there IS life in it. It doesn't hold together as a piece of filmmaking, but there's no doubt it comes from somewhere close to Schreiber's heart. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Wood, whose mostly mute turn is defined by his black suit and glasses, can only stare in stupefaction at Schreiber's jittery mix of broad laughs and sentiment. Audiences will share the feeling. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Alternately mawkish and strident, with lots of fades to white and dog reaction shots, this can be recommended only for its good intentions. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The problem -- aside from the fact that one of the best things about Foer's story is its irreverent, intricate, just-maybe-brilliant writing -- is what Schreiber has decided to cut. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Has a haunting afterglow, one that neither satisfies nor illuminates, but at least keeps the flame alive. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Liev Schreiber's film version of "Everything Is Illuminated" achieves the impossible — it's even more annoying than Jonathan Safran Foer's gratingly precocious novel. Read full review
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