Gave me a big laugh and heartbreaking
This movie gave me a big laugh from the first half of the story, then turned out to be a serious and heartbreaking historical drama towards the end. Elijah Wood, who played an Jewish American man with a OCD-like compulsion, did a great job. His road trip fellow, Alex (played by Eugene Hutz) is wonderful in portraying a hip-hop-loving Ukrainian guy who speaks English with a funny accent. I loved how he translates in English with a sprinkle of jokes and sarcasm towards Americans. I think the screenwriter did some research to create unique English sentences which often happens when non-English speakers speak English.
A young American guy named Jonathan, played by Elijah Wood, is a collector who always brings small plastic bags to collect anything whenever he finds things that are meaningful. With a pendant he collected when his grandfather died and a picture when his grandmother dies, he flies to Ukraine to find the root of his family and a Ukrainian village. He hires Odessa Heritage Tour, run by an old Ukrainian man Alexander (Oleksandr Choroshko) who claims he is blind (but is not). Along with his English-speaking grandson, Alex (played by Eugene Hutz) and Alexander's clinging guided dog, a strange road trip starts. While looking for a Ukrainian village called Trachimbrod, Alexander's old memory comes back which helps Jonathan find a historical background hidden in the picture and the relationship between his grandfather and grandmother.
The story has a little puzzle that took me time to resolve, such as where Jonathan's grandmother met his grandfather, where his grandmother died, how grandmother's sister kept the grandmother's ring, etc. While the story depicts a cruel history around the Nazi's conquest in Ukraine and how his grandfather survived his life, the tone of the story is somehow poetic and aesthetic which makes the film impressive. When Augustine's sister was told that the war was over, everything was solved as if a tangled thread got loosen, and Jonathan's investigation put an end to the story and so did Alexander's. The movie also tells that one cannot choose a place to be born, so you could be someone else in another country.
I marked this movie in my watchlist in 2005, and finally had the mood and time to watch it. I feel time passed so quickly.
A young American guy named Jonathan, played by Elijah Wood, is a collector who always brings small plastic bags to collect anything whenever he finds things that are meaningful. With a pendant he collected when his grandfather died and a picture when his grandmother dies, he flies to Ukraine to find the root of his family and a Ukrainian village. He hires Odessa Heritage Tour, run by an old Ukrainian man Alexander (Oleksandr Choroshko) who claims he is blind (but is not). Along with his English-speaking grandson, Alex (played by Eugene Hutz) and Alexander's clinging guided dog, a strange road trip starts. While looking for a Ukrainian village called Trachimbrod, Alexander's old memory comes back which helps Jonathan find a historical background hidden in the picture and the relationship between his grandfather and grandmother.
The story has a little puzzle that took me time to resolve, such as where Jonathan's grandmother met his grandfather, where his grandmother died, how grandmother's sister kept the grandmother's ring, etc. While the story depicts a cruel history around the Nazi's conquest in Ukraine and how his grandfather survived his life, the tone of the story is somehow poetic and aesthetic which makes the film impressive. When Augustine's sister was told that the war was over, everything was solved as if a tangled thread got loosen, and Jonathan's investigation put an end to the story and so did Alexander's. The movie also tells that one cannot choose a place to be born, so you could be someone else in another country.
I marked this movie in my watchlist in 2005, and finally had the mood and time to watch it. I feel time passed so quickly.
- Cat-Wings
- Jan 27, 2017