Elijah's weird odyssey

Liev Schreiber's film is based on the debut novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. It tells the tale of a young American's quest to find the woman who saved his Jewish grandfather in a small Ukrainian town when the Nazis arrived with their murder squads.

He has in his hand an old photograph of the woman, and sets out on a long and eventful journey in an ancient car driven by an anti-Semitic old man who insists on taking along his growling pooch and a translator whose English is badly under-cooked.

Elijah Wood takes the part of the bespectacled young man, looking oddly not quite of this world, whose odyssey becomes less and less romantic as he travels through ruined towns and countryside. The shtetls where Jews lived are long gone and the chances of finding the woman seem slimmer and slimmer.

The film attempts comedy, farce, drama and tragedy as it delves into Jewish history and the power of memory and family relationships. Sometimes it succeeds. However, Schreiber holds almost every sequence too long in case we don't get the point.

Whether you are irritated or pleased, there are some fine moments and the score from the gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello adds to the weird atmosphere.

Everything Is Illuminated
Cert: 12A