Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

Screenwriters rarely develop a distinctive voice that can be recognized from movie to movie, but the ornate imagination of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) has made him a unique and much-needed cinematic presence. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a guy decides to have the memories of his ex-girlfriend erased after she's had him erased from her own memory--but midway through the procedure, he changes his mind and struggles to hang on to their experiences together. In other hands, the premise of memory-erasing would become a trashy science-fiction thriller; Kaufman, along with director Michel Gondry, spins this idea into a funny, sad, structurally complex, and simply enthralling love story that juggles morality, identity, and heartbreak with confident skill. The entire cast--Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, and more--give superb performances, carefully pitched so that cleverness never trumps feeling. A great movie. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Best love story of all time

The reason I claim this as the best love story, ever, is because its the only one I have seen that tells the fundamental truth of love in a long term relationship.
Its not a comedy.
Using a science fiction premise and some of the most elegantly subtle special effects I have ever seen... the film presents the idea of being able to do away with our bad experiences by having them literally deleted.
Could we be happier without the heartache we have suffered? Or is that heartache rooted in our sense of loss over memories that were, once, cherished?

The film does not gloss over the hard parts... but cuts to the core of what it is to love another human being... good and bad.
The erosion of our thoughtless actions and words on each other and the idea we have of what love ought to be.

And, in the last lines of the last scene, the film offers every one of us redemption for those small sins against love which we all commit.

November 30, 2008

4.5 stars

This DVD was a gift to my daughter, and we watched it with her. She says it's the best movie she's ever seen. I wasn't quite as enthralled as she was, but I enjoyed it very much anyway.

When the movie opens, Joel (Jim Carrey) impulsively skips work and goes to the shore, where he meets a blue-haired woman, Clementine (Kate Winslet) and they hit it off. But then strange things start happening.

Turns out, Clementine has had boyfriend Joel erased from her mind. When he gets the letter from the memory-erasing clinic informing him of this, he decides to have her erased from his mind as well.

The movie jumps back and forward in time, which can be a little disorienting, though I think that was the point. Oddly enough, the story flows well that way, as things learned in one scene impact the meaning of the next regardless of where they fit in the chronology, and the story is much more effective than if it had been told in strict chronological order.

I suspect part of the difference between my daughter's "best movie ever" and my 4.5 stars is that I've read and watched a lot more science fiction than she has, and the concept of erasing memories isn't a new one for me. I did enjoy the details of the technique in this one, though I'd have liked to see it explored a little more thoroughly. For example, much was made of needing to find every single object connected with the person to be erased, but we never saw the consequences of missing something.

I was surprised, though, that she liked the romance of the movie--she's usually pretty cynical about such things. I, of course, loved the "true love conquers all" as well as the twists when things started going wrong. November 23, 2008

one of my all time favorites

If you've ever had a relationship....I think you'll enjoy this well produced film. The acting is good, the direction is good and the story is unique and well written. November 16, 2008

Simply breathtaking

I consider myself somewhat of a movie buff; from Weimar Germany to Eastern European to Bollywood cinema, I've seen my share of emotional, intellectual and esoteric tributes to that blessed, cursed, ever-scrutinized human emotion we call love. This is one of the few films that I feel truly captures the feeling of regret and desperation contemplating what could have been. The chemistry between Winslet and Carrey is not particularly organic, but then again their rocky relationship is what's driving the plot, and it more than works in this instance. I feel some viewers might have lost something being stuck on Carrey's more comedic roles, but here he fit the bill perfectly for an awkward, emotionally closed man struggling first to react to Clementine's forwardness, then fighting to retain his memories of their relationship (not in chronological order, but in the order in which they were presented in the film). A truly first-rate and beautiful movie. November 14, 2008

Fantastic Visuals Illustrate Journey Through Life, Love and Loss.

What if you could forget a person so completely that you would never know that you had met them, spent time with them, even loved them?

The ability to do exactly that is what lies at the heart of this drama, which takes us on a journey through Joel's (Carrey) mind as his memories are selectively erased. Kaufman's great visuals give physical form to Joel's memories and their systematic destruction: Houses disintegrate, faces become blurred and entire streets crumble as, neuron by neuron, the procedure progresses.

We learn that the impetus for this voluntary brain damage is Joel's roller-coaster romance, and bitter breakup, with the impulsive Clementine (Winslet). As in 'Adaptation' Kaufman approaches love with a realism that is often deeply cynical but ultimately betrays a loner's desire to be loved. Everyman Joel and the untameable Clementine make a good pair, and most of us will be able to identify with their tumultuous relationship.

An excellent, highly imaginative exploration of how the little things in life, good or bad, make us who we are. DVD includes commentary, interviews with Kaufman and Carrey as well as some other extras. Highly recommended DVD! October 10, 2008

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