1st futile Review Writing attempt (movies)...
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED
A poignant movie; yet sprinkles of humour hardly leave any sad feelings lingering. It brings forth the part(s) of our lives that we banish, the memories we don’t want to revive, and, the relations that usually affect us only indirectly. Undoubtedly the character of Alex is the most transparent, and, resembles a mundane everyday reality. One can easily find oneself at an identification plane with Jonathan (the protagonist). Identification, here, means, a basic ‘Oh-That’s-Just-like-me’ kind of similarity recognition. Jonathan is perhaps the ‘skeleton’ of most people… both in spirit and mind (and I’ll leave this to the reader’s understanding). Further, there is, in my view, a marble-like something about most of the people (in the movie), and, again, maximally about Jonathan. From deep-clear-skin to huge eyes-behind-spectacles, from what he does (i.e. ‘Collecting family memorablia’) to his voice, and, mannerisms… It’s glazed marble.
The huge sun-flower blooming garden nurtured by Augustine’s sister leaves an excruciatingly happy impact on the viewer. So does the lady, who despite her loneliness, had seemed to risen beyond the need to justify and/or even ponder upon it. It’s touching…
That the “blind” grandfather committed suicide came as a shock (to me); but, that’s perhaps because I was still connecting with the surface tranquillity, and, not the depths of sorrow (entwined with grief) that, in actuality, is reverberating throughout the movie.
Zing of this movie resides in the exchanges between Alex, Jonathan and the grandfather. Meaning is captured in the exchange between Augustine’s sister and the grandfather, and, myself is still struggling to understand that…
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