Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) falls for Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) from the first moment they meet on a train. After a bad breakup, Clementine erases Joel from her memories. He decides to do the same to her. Patrick (Elijah Wood), Stan (Mark Ruffalo), and Mary (Kirsten Dunst) are the three slacker technicians who are running Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson)'s machine. As his memories are eliminated, he starts to fall in love with Clementine all over again. He struggles to hold on to his memories before it's all gone.

The premise is amazing, but it's the imaginative visualization of the process that puts in on another level. Jim Carrey pours his heart into this very difficult disjointed performance. It's very effecting and probably one of his best non-impersonation performance. In its core, it's a beautiful love story. It's funny. It's poignant.

After a lukewarm reception in 2001 with "Human Nature", Charlie Kaufman has teamed up with director, Michel Gondry again for this romatic fantasy. With a name like Jim Carrey, this second collaboration couldn't go wrong in terms of box office success, and nor should it as this film is quite simply brilliant.

"Eternal Sunshine" centres around the life of Joel (Jim Carrey) a shy, mild mannered man who is heart broken after splitting from his feisty, impulsive girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet). A short while after their split, he meets her again while she is working at a library and he is stunned to discover that she doesn't recognise him. He later finds out that the reason for this is that Clementine has had her memory of Joel wiped out completely. Dr Howard Mierwick (Tom Wilkinson) has performed an operation on her brain after Clementine visited his clinic to forget Joel. Much to Joel's distress, he decides to do the same, but during his operation he revisits memories of Clementine that he struggles to let go of.

If anyone was in doubt as to whether Jim Carrey can act, this is the film that will put all doubt out of the way. He performs with sensitivity and warmth, never once verging on the manic rubber faced lunacy to which he is most well known for. Out of all the perfomances where he has stepped into the dramtic role (The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, The Majestic), this has got to be his best yet. Kate Winslet is also brilliant as his unpredictable, adventurous girlfriend.

Kaufman's story of a man going into a surreal dream world is not too dissimilar from his earlier work, "Being John Malkovich". You have off the wall images such as Carrey re-enacting his 4 year old self along his journey in his head. The eccentricity of the story, which is Kaufman's trademark, once again works excellently. When watching this you generally care for Carrey and Winslet, in much the same way as Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in "Lost In Translation". Gondry's diection gives a bittersweet flavour to the tale.

The sub plots involving the supporting characters who are operating are ingenius. Tom Wilkinson once again proves that he is one of the best British actors of his generation and he is backed up by great performnces from Kirsten Dunst and a post-LOTR Elijah Wood.

This is a lovely film and if you like originality with a sense of fantasy with a love story, then I suggest you see it. It's one of those films you'll want to see twice.

Michel Gondry, credited as the director and co-writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is only partly responsible for the success that the film achieves. He implements a awe-inspiring blend of style to a story that is perfectly non-linear. But then there is also the madman genius of the current screen writing plane- Charlie Kaufman- who has written three of the most ingenious, funny, and human of "little" Hollywood movies (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind).

He understands, and perhaps likely experienced to a degree, what a relationship holds to- the truth, to understanding, and then when it ends, how out memory changes the relationship. Enter in the concept that makes 'Eternal Sunshine' something of a un-official science fiction film - the Lacuna corporation, led by Tom Wilkinson's character, can erase just one person out of your memory, all of the experiences that you and the significant other had. So, when Joel (Jim Carrey) goes in to erase his memory of Clementine (Kate Winslet) after finding out she did just the same, he enters into a mind-warp. He goes through memories they had, happy ones, sad ones, some that are just what makes up what you have emotionally with the one you've loved. And sometimes, and to the behest of the assistants of Lacuna (Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo), Joel doesn't want them all to be erased.

As I mentioned, the plot is non-linear, which could've gone the wrong way if not done with skill. With a film like 21 Grams, which has a talented director and cast, the non-linear structure isn't necessary. But it's an asset that the story doesn't start from A to Z. To assist Gondry with this, he has the extraordinary Ellen Kuras as DP and Valdís Óskarsdóttir, an editor from Iceland. Their collaboration is crucial with Gondry and Kaufman (and co-writer Pierre Bismuth), as they bring all of these un-real images a real quality. Quite simply, there isn't a finer example of surrealism crossbred with realism in any other American film so far this year. The usage of lights, cuts, and with the kinds of special effects not expected (i.e. no CGI), add to the effect it has on a viewer. That the characters of Joel and Clementine are as enveloping as they are is also a credit to Kaufman.

But then there's one more part that completes the success of the film - the acting. Jim Carrey, very simply, is at his very best. He finds a balance from certain scenes in being like people we see everyday, feeling low, not much of interest, inward. And then when the memory erases begin, we get to see him act funny, but not like the kind of humor he brought with Ace Ventura or Dumb and Dumber. This is Carrey knowing this character just well enough to play off his counterpart, played by Winslet. She, meanwhile, is perhaps at her best. Her character is eccentric, funny, insightful, and wanting. She pulls it off. As do the supporting actors.

There's not much more I can say about this film, except to say that even after seeing it three times, I feel like I could watch it over and over and see a new shot, a new sequence, and new set of emotions tied to things. It's one of the great romantic dramedies of the decade.

The first time I saw this movie I found it confusing, a little artsy for my taste and I didn't get it.

But I didn't come in here to give it a 1 point rating or a damning review just because I didn't get it. It would be kind of stupid to pass judgement on a film that I didn't fully understand.

Some years later I watched it for the second time. My ex had just left me, and I don't remember how and why I came by this movie again. But the second time I got it. And how life would be like a bleak dessert, frozen in time, in the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind.

And after watching it a second time I felt hopeful again.

Joel and Clementine have reached breaking point in their relationship, every action, every word triggers the other, so much so, that they each undergo a procedure to remove all trave of the other.

How wonderful a thought, being able to remove all trace of an ex, better still having them remove all trace of you.

It has taken me years to get this film, years, I simply didn't get it, I'd tried several times over the years, it just never clicked, until now. If you're frustrated by the first twenty minutes, I urge you to give it another try.

We've all been there, hurt by a relationship, pushed to the point of despair, how wonderful it would be to remove all trace, it's a wonderful concept, but real life doesn't allow for that, however in film, anything is possible.

Wonderfully nightmarish, but sweet and tender at times too, the moments of hate and loathing are eclipsed by Joel and Clem's tender scenes.

The only thing I can think of that had similar vibes, was Total Recall, dissimilar in most aspects, but that whole memory manipulation theme is similar.

I have forever been a fan of Jim Carrey, and I would regard this as one of his best performances, he's terrific, as is Kate Winslet, the pair combined so well.

9/10.