Tags
Drama, Elijah Wood, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Movie, Romance, Science Fiction, Tom Wilkinson
you were right, this is much more comfortable with clothes on...
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Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson
Joel: Random thoughts for Valentines Day 2004: Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.
When Joel (Carrey) finds out that Clementine (Winslet) has had the memory of their entire relationship erased, he undergoes the same procedure. As he starts to encounter memories that he doesn’t want to lose, Joel tries to figure out a way to wake up from the procedure, or at least a way to hide the memories of Clementine somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind.
Well, it was Valentines Day and I was looking for something relevant to watch. So, why not just go ahead and watch my favorite movie?
Where should I start with my praise? How about Carrey and Winslet. After seeing a bit of the soul-torture that is Ace Ventura, I basically despised Mr. Carrey. But, he gradually started to win me over with roles in other movies, like Dumb and Dumber and The Truman Show. Then came this movie, and the winning-me-over process was complete. As for Winslet, well, she’s basically created one of my favorite characters of all time. It’s amazing what she can do with subtle mannerisms and a simple look. Plus, I think the accent she achieves is impressive. She’s not just faking an American accent, but an American accent with a slight New York accent on top of it that only emerges here and there, which seems more realistic to me. The greatness of the Clementine character can also be partly credited to the costume designers/wardrobe people. Gotta love that orange sweatshirt (and matching hair).
Okay, on to the story now. If you could erase someone from your memory…someone who you miss greatly or who hurt you terribly…would you? Is it worth losing the good memories to get rid of the bad memories? Or do we need all that pain in order to grow as people? As Westley said in The Princess Bride, “life IS pain…anyone who says differently is selling something.” You take away the pain, you take away life.
The movie begins with a meeting between the odd but charming Clementine and the quiet but “really nice” Joel. They gravitate toward each other and immediately fall into conversation as though they’d known each other for a long time. How could these two ever have problems? Well, as the memory erase is started on Joel and we begin backtracking through their relationship, we get to see how they gradually grew apart. Joel doesn’t communicate well, which then annoys Clementine, who then gets bored and angry all the time. No wonder they both want each other gone.
But then come the good memories. The moments Joel wants to hold on to. So, at memory-Clementine’s suggestion, Joel tries to take her to the secret, hidden, embarrassing places in his mind. Places he would never allow her when they were together. I think this is brilliant writing by Charlie Kaufman. I imagine he’s had this kind of problem in a relationship before and knows now that you need to be an “open book”, as Clementine tells Joel. Showing that through this elaborate memory exploration is genius.
Michel Gondry’s inventive directing style is exactly what was needed to bring the story to life. Apparently there were very few digital, post production tricks used, which is hard to believe at times. Either way, it’s beautiful when it needs to be and nightmarishly dreamy when that’s called for.
I haven’t even touched on the story of the memory wipers. Stan (Ruffalo) and Mary (Dunst) smoke weed, dance, and engage in other activities around Joel as his internal battle rages on. Meanwhile, poor loser Patrick (Wood) is off trying to seduce the real life Clementine using all of the stuff he got from her and Joel’s files. These stories seem a little extraneous at first, but once again Kaufman manages to weave them all back together perfectly.
This is getting a bit long, and I could probably go on longer about the music, the little details of the sets, and the performances of the supporting cast, but what’s the point? You’ll probably just forget it all anyways…
I’ll close by saying, it’s probably not a perfect movie (but what is?), and I can actually understand why some wouldn’t like it nearly as much as I do, but…well, that’s the thing about favorite movies, they usually touch people in a very specific way. For me, I can see myself in Joel a bit. Not just because I’m nice, but because I’m sure I’ve uttered his phrase “my life just isn’t that interesting” many times. Though, I’ve yet to have a Clementine come fluttering into my life unfortunately…
SOMEBODY out there has got the job of making up names for hair dye colors…
10 – .4 for a couple of parts that are a little slow or bothersome = 9.6
This is one of my favorites as well. I think your review pretty much nails this movie front to back. The part when they’re suddenly little and he hits the dead pigeon with the hammer. What’s his line after that? Something like ‘I wish I’d known you when I was younger’ or something like that… There are so many scenes that get me in this movie, I don’t know where to start.
There really isn’t a slow part or a dull portion of it, imho.
Good review, great movie. I just wish Chrystal liked it more. Easily the best of the Charlie Kaufman movies…. and that’s saying quite a lot…
I just plain don’t care if “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” has any flaws — I love it so much I gloss right over whatever they might be. It’s one of the most visually stunning and heartbreakingly acted love stories I’ve ever seen, and it’s the one romantic comedy (the comedy part sneaks up on you) I recommend to EVERYONE.
One of the best romantic movies of all time!!
Joel (Jim Carrey) is a rather milquetoast man who meets up with free spirit Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they become romantically involved. However, they endure a messy breakup and Clementine goes to a business called Lacuna, Inc., where she has all of her memories of Joel erased. Not wanting to be left out, Joel also goes to have his memory erased. However, soon after it begins, Joel realizes that he wants to keep the memory of Clementine, so he tries to reverse the process.
Well, if you’re familiar with Kaufman’s work, then you know what your getting yourself into. This is just as weird if not weirder than his previous work, Being John Malkovich. I knew what I was getting myself into, but 90% of the movie I was saying to myself “What the hell is going on?”, but in a good way. It opens with Joel calling in sick for work and going on a different train, heading for Montauk. He meets Clementine and they hit it off. Now this is about 15 minutes into the movie, then out of nowhere come the opening credit sequence. I will admit, I thought it would be different, but I’m glad that it is the way it is, the movie is 80% of the time in Joel’s head.
If you think you know Carrey, think again. This movie is his best performance, better than Majestic, Truman show and all of his comedic roles (which is what I love him for). Just looking at his face from the second we see him, we feel his pain, then like that, we feel his joy, embarrassment and hate. Just awesome acting on his part, and Winslet was great as the free spirit who never seems satisfied. The supporting cast all work well in their small, yet important roles. Oscar nominations for Winslet and (crosses fingers) Carrey.
But if I were to bet any money on any Oscar nominations it would obviously be the writing, what a mess, but beautifully constructed. You think to yourself, is that scene really necessary? Then ten minutes later you think to yourself how brilliant it was, that’s beautiful, crazy, give me whatever he’s smoking kind of writing. Charlie Kaufman’s writing is always clever, but this time he’s one-upped himself by making something simultaneously bizarre and emotionally engaging. It seemed like his earlier movies were clever for the sake of cleverness, but ‘Eternal Sunshine’ manages to dazzle you with it’s originality and it’s poignancy. The fact that this movie was able to wrap such profound loss, emotional tenderness, and hope in such a self-consciously stylized package illustrates the incredible talent of the people behind it.
Michel Gondry’s use of vibrant coloring and quick camera movement give the film a very involving first hand feeling. The constant use of the handy cam is very all involving for the viewer, and I suppose that this is exactly what is needed in such a personal movie. His work on the dream sequences is incredible as well. He decides to use more practical effects than what we see today with computers.
Eternal Sunshine is a tragic, yet beautiful film that sits at the top of my list of “Best of 2004”.