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Have you ever just wanted to forget a relationship? To completely erase its disastrous effect on your life? Sure you have. We all have. This is the premise of Michel Gondry's startling creation penned by the startling Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In Eternal Sunshine, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet, sans her lovely British accent) are two radically different people: Joel is quiet, straightlaced, and keeps a journal; Clementine is outgoing, rebellious, changes her hair color every other week, and creates abstract art. Well, like they say, opposites attract, and with Joel and Clem, they do, and in a big way. The two opposites magnetically come together and quickly fall in love when they meet one day on a train...or do they? Gondry's film is a tangled web of twists, and one can ever be quite sure if what they're seeing is what's actually happening. Not all great loves last, and Joel and Clem's seems to burn out and crash like the heaviest of commercial airliners. Then, one day, shortly after their separation, Joel receives a letter saying that Clem has gone and had all of her memories of him erased by a suspicious company named Lacuna Inc. Depressed and hurt, Joel goes to the Lacuna offices, has a meeting with the rather off-center Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), and then later, at his own home during his sleep, has his memory erasure process begun by a few less-than-professional (to say the least) team members. These include partier Stan (Mark Ruffalo), psychological rapist Patrick (Elijah Wood), and drunken stoner Mary (Kirsten Dunst). However, as Joel travels through his own mind and thoughts during the erasure process, he begins to realize how wonderful the relationship that he had with Clem was and how he would never want to forget it, even if it did ruin his life. Can he stop the process before Clem is effectively gone from his life? If that sounds like the craziest brainscrew you've ever seen, that's because it is. Charlie Kaufman, the master writer of the brainscrew (what with films like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. under his belt), turns in another brilliant screenplay, and Michel Gondry provides the craziest of crazed atmospheres to the film by wisely filming the entire thing with a handicam, therefore adding tension and lunacy to the tale. However, Gondry and Kaufman's tale does not just focus on the lunacy of it all. Kaufman knows that there needs to be a certain emotional resonance thrown in the mix to make everything remain permanently etched into the viewers' minds, and this resonance comes in the form of Joel and Clem's tragic relationship. As Joel watches his last memories of Clem dwindle away, he and the audience both realize how much he truly loved her and how sad it is that this is all coming to an end. It's one of the saddest, most heartbreaking loves ever commited to film. The main theme resoundingly booming throughout Eternal Sunshine's celluloid is the old saying, "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Gondry executes the failed romance with his manic direction, and makes it all the more special and unique. As for the cast...well, the entire ensemble is brilliant. Jim Carrey plays way against type as Joel (Bruce Almighty paid the bills last year, so here he actually gets to do something)...one normally expects goofy rubberfaced antics from Carrey, yet here he is quiet, defined, subtle, and, well, just fantastic. Kate Winslet is suprisingly perfect as Clem, providing wonderful contrast to Carrey's character. Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and especially Kirsten Dunst shine in their supporting roles...if there's a better ensemble this year, I'll eat my hat. Or yours. I quite like my hat. At the end of the day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a captivating, hilarious, and bizarre flight of fancy that doesn't seem too far out of the grasp of modern science. Though subtly, it discusses the disadvantages of such a scientific advancement, and discourages it. It's a great tool, but a great weapon as well...the proverbial double-edged sword. Mankind's inventions are getting the better of mankind, as they have for centuries, and a certain amount of "let's be careful" needs to be used. Eternal Sunshine is a multi-topical film that one never realizes is multi-topical, for such is the importance and wonder Gondry has gifted his story and characters with. It's a sunny day indeed. --Courtesy of REELPICKS.CJB.NET-- email this review to a friend
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Jul 31, 2006 1:28 PM
Coincidentally, I just watched this for the umpteenth time on Saturday! I still completely love it.