Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
One of the best romantic-dramas in the history of all cinema, with a very nice unique mixture of science fiction -- It's also incredibly heartwarming. I've watched it again for about the 15th time and I always love it. Basically, it's what one could expect from the crazy surreal minds of Charlie Kaufmann or something out of Spike Jonze. What I'll say about this movie is that in terms of how it's made, the editing, the cinematography and narrative structure -- It's just spot on. Nothing is out of context, but all of it is put together so as to challenge the viewer's attention as well as their emotions. It's as mind-boggling confusing as it is quite simple. It's a story about love, what else do you need to know? Plenty, I'll say. Much of the story, for instance, deals with memories being erased, and thus the film presents these memories in an un-chronological order,while Joel, and the viewer alike, explores them as they slowly disappear from the minds of our protagonists.
It's quite incredibly charming to see Jim Carrey as Joel & Kate Winslet as Clementine, losing their minds together. They center themselves so well that we end up really caring about their escapades and the outcome of this erased loving-relationship. Before the viewer even realizes it, they'll come to understand that what they've been watching from the beginning of the film is actually Joel's memories, which have seen disappeared or buried themselves away. As the film kicks off Joel is seized with an inexplicable compulsion to ditch work and take the train to Montauk, and on the train he meets Clementine. To anyone's knowledge, ours, as the viewer, and Joel, they've never seen each other before, but looking at the signs of affection Joel awkwardly presents towards her simply by looking at her back.. Gives the slightest sense of deja vu.¨
As the plot develops too and time is moving freely, dizzyingly, forward and backward in time, they will each experience fragmentary versions of relationships they had, might have had, or might be having. It's incredibly poignant, surreal and romantic. Despite the less than encouraging scenes of frustrations the film presents their relationship, and how very different they are (one is shy and compulsive, the other is extroverted and wild) they still make for excellent chemistry. They complete each other as they both desire companionship and love from each other. It's love that spans the boundaries of science and heck.. even reality. '
This what makes this film work so well alongside the incredible performances from Winslet & Carrey -- Winslet playing a completely different kind of character than what she's done before. It almost felt like a transformation, or Jim Carrey who truly let out what he's really capable of as an actor and allowed us to explore a different side to the actor in the role of Joel. There were even moments in the film, where I could tell "Yep, it's still Jim Carrey" but the best thing. It works so well for this film. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a journey within the human mind, and like Jonze's Her, it explores the basic desires of companionship, but also the things we can never replace. At the end of the day, our memories are all we really have, and when they're gone, we're gone.
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