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
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
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