| Movie Review By Dan Foster: Everything Is Illuminated
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Everything Is Illuminated. Quite interesting, slightly confusing, and wacky. Very slow, but well done. The movie reminds me of a memorial service.
The main character is Jonathan Safran Foer, played by Elijah Wood(Frodo, Lord of the Rings). Jonathan is a young, quirky Jewish boy who decides to make a trip overseas to find out how his deceased grandfather escaped the Nazis into Russia. He hires two tour guides, a young man, Alex, and his grandfather. The grandfather brings his dog, Sammy Davis. Jr. Jr.(extra Jr. because there is already a Sammy Davis, Jr.)
When Jonathan and his tour guides meet up, in Odessa, Jonathan finds they are less than reliable, but all three find out a lot about themselves and each other on this road trip. Jonathan ends up in the Ukraine searching for the woman, Augustina, who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. The Ukrainian landscape, by the way, is beautiful.
Jonathan’s new travel companions start off making fun of the young quirky American with the coke bottle glasses. Jonathan, reveals his obsessive and compulsive behavior by collecting things like underwear, dollar bills, dentures, and photographs and placing them in Ziploc plastic baggies; He carries an endless supply of these baggies with him everywhere.
But the grandfather and Alex, the grandson(tour guides), have their own moments. Alex, the English interpreter for the group, speaks broken English, to put it mildly. He calls making love “getting carnal.” “All the ladies are wanting to get carnal with me because of my premium dance moves.” The grandfather gets upset(and shows his Anti-Semitism) when Jonathan points out Sammy Davis Jr., the man his dog is named after, is a Jew. The grandfather thinks that Jews have "s* ** between their brains” to trek across the ocean to find out more about dead relatives.
The star of the movie was the dog, Sammy Davis, Jr. Jr. Really, the dog was great. It is almost impossible to tell about how he was so much a part of the symbolism of the movie. Jonathan had a phobia against dogs, a real fear. This dog was pretty nasty to everybody else but loved and protected Jonathan. The moral is that truly an animal often sees what others might not. Hence, the title: Everything is Illiuminated.
The movie takes a more serious turn and becomes "dark." There are flashbacks from the 1930’s about Jewish life. I do not want to tell any more, because I don’t want to spoil the movie for you. I know this movie sounds wacky; and, let me tell you, this was one hard review to write. So, wait for the DVD: just as good as seeing the movie.
Two chutes.
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| Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)
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Review by Dan Foster. I went to church and would you believe the pastor spent her sermon on the Chronicles of Narnia. She asked an interesting question: "Is this the new Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson? Maybe!
The movie is being hyped as a great evangelical tool by the fundamentalist Christians. C. S. Lewis wrote so many things as allegories; and, to me, it is always a stretch to read anything into them other than they are classic children's tales.
I saw some preacher on TV who has made his entire Church into one big Chronicles of Narnia experience. And, according to the media, Disney is trying to do with Chronicles what Mel Gibson did with Passion of the Christ.
Just as I am somewhat suspect of the preacher with peroxide hair declaring C. S. Lewis's intent, I'm not sure that there's much to be gleaned from the movie for the fundamentalists. My thinking is that if they want too-have at it. Their pronostications are about knowing exactly what God is saying and believing their interpretation of the "Holy Writ" is accurate right down to the exclamation point. Please! For those of us who are less exact, and surely, not as dogmatic, I doubt they've got it.
The movie's sound and special effects are terrific, but it is a kid's movie; an adult viewing it has to start with that fact: a kid's movie and a kid's imagination. The thing that intrigued me about the movie, however, was how it was tied to WW II even more than the book. I've read or tried to read the book several times; and, if one is looking for it, there is obviously enormous Christian symbolism: good vs. evil, the resurrection, etc. In the movie, it was very graphic. The Lion, representing Christ, is killed and on display; and, down the road, he is resurrected with the stone to which he was tied.
I think I love the witch. There's a very provocative scene and I think I'm probably the only one in America who thought so. Of the four kids and their imagination, the younger one embraces the witch and she seductively takes him into her sleight(a clever or skillful trick or deception) and wraps her big furry coat around him and speaks softly in his ear. He is seduced by her guile, but the witch, shows her true colors and the young boy eventually comes around. Nevertheless, one gets the feeling that one word of encouragement from the witch and he's right back at her feet. Hard to resist.
In the end, good overcomes evil. We see centaurs and minotaurs and some gosh ugly beasts. And, let's don't forget the annoying beavers who sound a little like the beginning of an Archie Bunker sitcom. If you are going to see it with a child, do so on the big screen: load up on a big popcorn, raisinets, and a big drink (put your hands down, you've been robbed, but it is the movies) and relax.
Two chutes- If you are an adult, Rent the DVD: just as good as seeing the movie.December 29, 2005
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