I am deranged but so, so playful.......

This weekend was JB's annual trip with "the boys" to Buffalo, NY to see the Buffalo Bills play the New England Patriots. I was scheduled to go in to work on Saturday evening but for the remainder of the weekend I planned on just watching movies and vegging out. Being the oncall Manager for work, this weekend, I ended up getting called on Friday night and was up until 4am due to an outage. I went to bed and woke up late Saturday morning. I Dropped JB off at his buddies house in the early afternoon, as they were car pooling to Buffalo. I knew I had a few hours to kill before I went back to work so, I made some 9 bean soup and a pot of tea and clicked on the TV. I was lying on the sofa and had the TV on The Movie Network. A movie was just starting and I noticed it was directed by Liev Schreiber. Now I am a huge fan of Liev Schrieber, the actor. He is one of those actors who reminds me of the old school actors from the 1930's and 40's. He has a fantastic voice and as all good actors you never really see him "act". He has been in some great films and stage shows so I was intrigued that he had Directed and written the screenplay for this film. I thought "what the hell, there is nothing else on. I will watch this film"

Boy am I glad I did. It was one of the most lovely and entertaining films I have seen in a very long time. The movie is called "Everything is Illuminated". It is based on a novel written by Johnathan Safran Froer. The story is about a young Jewish American man who endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village, that was ultimately razed by the Nazis, with the help of a local who speaks weirdly funny broken English. The three, plus grandfather's deranged dog, travel in an old car from Odessa into Ukraine's heart. The film does an amazing job of showing the sweeping landscapes of Ukraine. I remember my father telling me that when he was growing up, the Ukraine was known as "the bread basket of Europe" with never ending fields of wheat and never ending farmland. The film does a great job of capturing this beautiful landscape. It is a perfect backdrop for the three men, with dog, as they travel within the heart of Ukraine on their quest.

I thought Elijah Wood was perfect as the lead character Johnathan, who collects bizarre items in ziploc bags and has more phobias than a Woody Allen character. But the stars of the film, for me, were Eugene Hutz as Alex, Johnathan's guide and Alex's Grandfather's dog or "Officious Seeing Eye Bitch" named Sammy Davis Junior, Junior. Eugene Hutz, as Alex is a larger and funnier version/combination of "Boris" from the Smirnoff ice ads and one of the "wild and crazy guys" from SNL(Saturday Night Live).

This is a movie I could watch again and again. It even has a cool soundtrack which includes Eugene Hutz's band "Gogol Bordello". If you have a chance to rent this film, do so. You will not be disappointed.

Trailer for movie

Quote of the Day:

Alex: [referring to the dog] This is Sammy Davis Jr. Jr... She is Grandfather's Seeing Eye bitch. Father purchased her for him not because he believes Grandfather is blind, but because a Seeing Eye bitch is also a good thing for people who pine for the opposite of loneliness. In truth, Father did not purchase her at all, but merely retrieved her from the home for forgetful dogs. Because of this, she is not a real Seeing Eye bitch, and is also mentally deranged.