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Movie Review:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet
It's so strange how things turn out. Like that time when Bee told me that he wanted to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I smiled and nodded, and then tried to put it off for as long as I could. After all, Agent Cody Banks 2 wasn't going to watch itself! Just kidding. I don't support kids-as-spy movies.
When we finally embarked on our movie-watching journey, I wasn't sure what to expect. Just that morning I had called it "Eternal Sunning of the Shady Mind." All I knew was that, for such a long title, it had better be pretty damn good. I also had reservations about a movie I had heard next to nothing about. Sure, the trailer looked decent, but then again, so did Paycheck, but I wasn't about to succumb to Ben Affleck's bland good looks, and I wasn't about to succumb to Jim Carrey's (yet again) dramatic turn.
Even after the first five minutes I was still skeptical. Jim Carrey is an average joe who decides to skip work and go down to the beach (in the middle of winter no less!). He broods. He writes in his journal. He looks at a girl but decides to go home. On the train ride home, he sees the girl again and she engages him in conversation. She is quirky. He is straight-laced. We get it. When does the procedure start?
But then, it gets better. And it never stops.
Written by acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and helmed by previous music video director Michel Godry (The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack), Eternal Sunshine follows the story of Joel (Carey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet), a couple whose love eventually grows and dies. Clementine impulsively undergoes a procedure to have her memory erased from Joel, and through friends, Joel finds out about what Clementine has done. Not one to be upstaged by his ex, Joel enlists in the same psychiatric service, run by Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), to have his memories of Clementine erased.
Such a simple story. Or is it?
The story hits close to home for many of us who have ever gone through heartbreak and have lived to tell about it. What if you could have all the painful memories erased? What if you could be free of pain, free of the loss and anger and bitterness? Would you choose ignorance to have bliss?
But the story doesn't end here. The movie makes it explicitly clear on its standpoint regarding such matters. As Joel undergoes the procedure, we see snippets of his turbulent relationship with Clementine. And that includes the good parts. And when they're good, they're really good. Suddenly you find yourself in Joel's shoes, trying to keep the memories alive, even as they're being erased. The film becomes a race against time, time that was once forgotten but never dead.
Carey expands his repertoire as Joel, occasionally shining in comedic bits but never overdoing it. Winslet, as usual, is stunning (even with blue-coloured hair), and as Clementine, a woman we should all really hate for erasing Joel, turns a sympathetic performance. Supporting roles by Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, and Mark Ruffalo are also superb. The only weak performer in the bunch is Elijah Wood, a one-note character who is written in only to propel the plot. I would say that he is also there for comic relief, but stalking and stealing panties is not that funny to me.
The movie fragments in places, but ties everything neatly by its finale. Godry does a good job directing the movie's tone - at times light and idyllic, at others dark and cynical - and its performers (in lesser hands, Joel and Clementine's on-screen duo could have fizzled and burnt-out by mid-film). But it's the script by Kaufman that really shines. Smart, understated, and unassuming, it could have all gone too maudlin (especially when the theme of the day is love and hope), but never did. We don't get the five-minute speeches about what love is, or the last-minute realization that Joel and Clementine are soulmates. Because they're not. They have problems like the rest of us. They're real people.
The movie touches on elements of fate and destiny without ever having a philosophical battle with itself. And that's the charm of the film, for it takes grand theories and applies it to real people. A spotless mind is very much like a spotless room - it's like no one's ever lived there. ¤ C.Ho.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND:
(out of 5)
[ See what he said. Part I of the battle. ]