by MATTHEW HAYS

Directorial efforts by actors are a mixed bag. For every Warren Beatty or Clint Eastwood, there’s a Burt Reynolds or Kevin Spacey. Sometimes, actors just have to try out the experience to realize they’re better off munching on the scenery.

Liev Schreiber is, without a doubt, a magnificent actor, having proven himself in more than a dozen films, both independent and studio-backed. With Everything is Illuminated, Schreiber takes on the challenge of translating Jonathan Safran Foer’s celebrated novel of the same name to the big screen. There are many things to merit the effort, but one of the principal goals here—that is, finding the right tone—isn’t entirely successfully realized.

Elijah Wood is well cast in the central role, an intensely neurotic young Jewish fellow obsessed with finding the man who saved his grandmother from genocide during World War II. This involves a trip to the Ukraine, where Wood finds there is a tourism service set up just for Jews looking for the remains of long lost relatives in Eastern Europe. This rather haphazard service is run by an elderly old man who often coughs up anti-Semitic sentiments (played with great spirit by Stephen Samudovsky), with the help of his grandson, (played by the frontman for gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, Eugene Hutz, who gives another one of the film’s great performances).

Wood’s character is understandably none too thrilled when he arrives at the airport to find this incredibly ramshackle service that will lead him to the whereabouts of his grandmother’s final resting place. As dramedy scripts of this kind dictate, there will be touching moments alongside whimsical ones, presumed polar-opposites will learn to appreciate one another and a family secret will be tossed in for good measure.

Schreiber certainly understands the art and craft of acting, culling solid performances from his ensemble. But his gear shifting between meaningful meditations on genocide and absurd comedy don’t always work. It’s a valiant effort, but ultimately, Everything is Illuminated is not everything it aspires to be.

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED OPENS FRIDAY, SEPt. 30

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