Everything is Illuminated” is a beautiful film that makes you think about where you are and where you come from.

Jonathan Safran Foer (Elijah Wood) is a young Jewish American who journeys to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis.

Although the plot is serious, this film is also surprisingly lighthearted. The people Foer meets are so colorful you can’t help feeling for them.

Through the film, everything seems relatively normal, but there’s also a slight twist of bizarreness that makes everything a bit off-kilter. You just never expect what’s going to happen.

This film is full of off-the-wall characters, including, of course, Jonathan Safran Foer, who is a collector. He collects anything and everything, even taking the dentures from his recently deceased grandmother’s bedside. My favorite is Alex, Jonathan’s Ukrainian guide. He rides around with his grandfather, who thinks he is blind. There is also Grandfather’s dog, Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., who is temperamental, to say the least.

This is an excellent film that I recommend to anyone, but is is also a thinking movie. You won’t just watch it and forget it, it will stick with you.