Mini Movie Reviews

Over the weekend, I saw not one but TWO movies. I'm not sure what I thought about them, so I would love comments from anyone who saw either.

Everything Is Illuminated, based on a bestselling novel I haven't read, is the measured, stylized meta-story about a writer named Jonathan Safran Foer who goes to the Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. I spent the opening minutes of the movie trying to determine whether Elijah Wood had a fake nose, or whether he was just very good at keeping his face immobile while playing a subdued character. The Ukranian translator is hilarious, and Wood, wide-eyed and pale behind oversized glasses, does a good job using the tiniest facial expressions to convey emotion; when he finally breaks out into a smile, it's an enormous relief. But overall, I couldn't decide whether all the elements of the movie worked together. The images of Ukrainian countryside were interesting and different, but the movie had a lulling rhythm, and I couldn't decide whether the ending was moving, precious, or both.

Sideways, which I rented on DVD, won a bunch of Oscars last season, so I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Parts of the dialogue were quite funny, especially from sullen Miles, and I laughed out loud at the full frontal male nudity scene near the end. I liked the texture of the ordinary restuarants, and the fact that some of the characters looked like regular people instead of Hollywood actors. (This being a movie, though, the female leads were still attractive, and Maya is inexplicably drawn to Miles even though he's clearly a loser.) I'll admit to having limited sympathy for the two middle-aged, pathetic men who make morally questionable choices throughout (although I can certainly feel Miles's pain at not being able to get his novel published). The discussions of wine and the shots of hazy golden vineyards, while mildly interesting at first, ultimately made the movie drag. What was the fuss about? I'm still not sure.