As well as having one of the most interesting soundtracks since last year's Life Aquatic; Everything is Illuminated is intelligent, funny and easily one of the best movies of the year. Acclaimed actor Liev Schrieber makes his directorial debut in this adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling novel about a young Jewish-American who travels to the Ukraine in search of a missing link in his family's history.

Jonathan (beautifully portrayed by Elijah Wood) is a somewhat eccentric young man whose interest lies in collecting items that have little or no significance to anyone but him. He decides to go to Europe when his dying grandmother gives him a photo of a woman who helped his grandfather escape during the Nazi occupation. He is met at the train station by his barely legitimate tour guides: Alex (Eugene Hutz, member of the folk-punk band Gogol Bordello), a self proclaimed ladies man who idolizes American popular culture and claims to be an official interpreter, despite his minimal grasp of the English language; Alex's grandfather (Boris Leskin,) a man worn down by life who also claims to be blind, is the driver; also along for the ride is Sammy Davis Junior Junior, Alex grandfather's “seeing eye bitch.”

Although Jonathan's often hilarious trip takes him all over the Ukrainian outback (but was actually done in the Czech Republic), it is less a road trip movie then a story about the interconnectedness of all things. By researching the history of his own family, he inadvertently reawakens some dark memories Alex's grandfather might rather forget. However, although the grandfather never talks out loud about his feelings throughout the course of the film, except to mutter somewhat Anti-Semitic comments cleverly covered through Alex's translations and ignored by the not-so-stupid Jonathan. Schrieber's beautiful visuals tell us all we need to know.

Everything is Illuminated is an adaptation of only a small part of the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, and although I have never read the book, it is said to be amongst the unfilmable. This may explain why I found myself satisfied albeit somewhat confused upon leaving the theatre as this is so often the case with adaptations of this kind. So I will read the book and see what I am missing, although in this case I believe I will be glad that I saw the movie first and walked into the theatre with no expectations because as a standalone film, Everything is Illuminated's magic will make it a contemporary and long lasting cult classic.