Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) by Michel Gondry
starring Jim Carrey and Kat Winslet
In a nutshell: Wildly creative, very indie, never quite strays too far into the depths of pretentiousness 
Quick synopsis: A twisted story about a relationship gone bad and modern technology that allows for memories to be selectively erased.
I'm back after a bit of a break. It's not that I haven't been watching anything, but I've been spending my time on TV shows. I am well into the only season of Freaks and Geeks and the 3rd season of The Office, so when I finish either I will post my thoughts/reviews. I also attempted to make progress on my attempt to make it through the Bond catalog (see movie #7: Dr. No) by watching From Russia With Love late at night but I fell asleep two different times in the process. You can expect that review to come up soon though.
I also managed to squeeze in Eternal Sunshine. It is a film that has been in my short list of "films to watch" for a looonnnnggg time, however I knew that it would require 100% concentration, so I always wnded up watching something else. I did see the film once before but didn't pay complete attention, and didn't really remember many details. Thus, watching it again was like watching it for the first time in that I had completely forgotten every key twist and most of the last half of the film completely.
Charlie Kaufman, the films writer, deserves all the credit in the world as hollywood's most creative writer. Just compare his films to the unimaginitive crap that hollywood usually turns out (how much creativity does it take to make sequels and remakes). However, a Kaufman script in the wrong hands could be disasterous and unwatchable. Luckily he has forged working relationships with two directors (Gondry and Spike Jonze) that can aptly handle his imagination.
Here, Gondry uses a variety of film techniques to put us inside Joel's (Carrey) head. scenes melt into each other in fantastic and surreal ways. Images flash across the screen and at times the viewer is meant to have difficulty determining what is actually happening and what is being imagined by Joel. All these techniques combine to effectively give the viewer an experience that is at times disorienting, yet always coherent from a story point of view.
It would have been easier for Gondry to turn in a film that would have been a critically acclaimed arthouse masterpiece, yet have no commercial appeal. But he manages to strike a stunning balance with Eternal Sunshine. There is a reason that it currently ranked in the mid 40's on imdb's top 250 list, right around the likes of To Kill a Mockingbird, Chinatown, and A Clockwork Orange.
I need to say a few words about this film's use of a device that is frequently misused and can be very annoying: the chronologically out of order scene. Pulp Fiction made it cool, Memento proved that it could be necessary, and 21 Grams drove me absoltely crazy by using it without reason. However, aside from Memento, Eternal Sunshine might be one of the very best uses of this device. The movie opens with Joel and Clementine (Winslet) meeting on a train. However, we start getting hints that perhaps this was not how they first met, and eventually it all makes sense. Sure, this scene could have been placed after their memories are erased and it still would have made perfect sense, but to place it at the beginning was a fine artistic choice. It seems like it IS the beginning of their story which makes it seem perfectly in place, and we only find out later that it is actually a scene from the middle of the tale.
Great choices like this are found throughout the film. Some are purely visual, such as the way scenes that are taking place inside Joel's head are melded together, and others are storytelling choices like the one previously described. Furthermore, the film trusts the viewer and does not patronize them at all. It allows us to unravel the mysteries at our own pace and gives plenty of time to do so.
The story of the peripheral characters (Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson & Elijah Wood) seems like padding for an otherwise thin plot, but is eventually tied back to the story of Joel and Clem in intriguing ways. I especially liked the twist that involved Wilkinson and Dunst. I did not see that coming. And while it eventually does further the main story in a very indirect way, it also gives us some more insight into this science fiction world that we are watching.
The acting is solid, which may come as a surprise to the many Carrey haters that are out there. He is restrained and subtle, like Robin WIlliams in his good dramatic roles. Winslet is her usualy great self and even Dunst, who usually annoys me, was good. The only complaint I have with her story, is that I would have been interested to see her character react to the information she is given by Wilkinson after that scene. She eventually makes a decision that effects the end of the film greatly, but she does so off camera. In fact, after she makes that decision, we do not see her again in the film.
Eternal Sunshine is just such a hard film to pin down. In fact you can find it on lists of science fiction films, romance films, surrealist films, and dramas. Quite an accomplishment.
Finally, and surprisingly, the film's ultimate lessons, or at least the ones that I took away from it, are very simple for such a complicated film. Joel and Clem did not communicate which each other when in their relationship. It just took a wild, crazy, and futuristic series of events for them to hear each others thoughts that should have been communicated directly. We are left with the idea that they just might be able to learn from their mistakes, even though they have no direct memory of them. Sure, there are other lessons about how it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, but I found the comminication theme to be much more interesting (and buried).
Quick synopsis: A twisted story about a relationship gone bad and modern technology that allows for memories to be selectively erased.
I'm back after a bit of a break. It's not that I haven't been watching anything, but I've been spending my time on TV shows. I am well into the only season of Freaks and Geeks and the 3rd season of The Office, so when I finish either I will post my thoughts/reviews. I also attempted to make progress on my attempt to make it through the Bond catalog (see movie #7: Dr. No) by watching From Russia With Love late at night but I fell asleep two different times in the process. You can expect that review to come up soon though.
I also managed to squeeze in Eternal Sunshine. It is a film that has been in my short list of "films to watch" for a looonnnnggg time, however I knew that it would require 100% concentration, so I always wnded up watching something else. I did see the film once before but didn't pay complete attention, and didn't really remember many details. Thus, watching it again was like watching it for the first time in that I had completely forgotten every key twist and most of the last half of the film completely.
Charlie Kaufman, the films writer, deserves all the credit in the world as hollywood's most creative writer. Just compare his films to the unimaginitive crap that hollywood usually turns out (how much creativity does it take to make sequels and remakes). However, a Kaufman script in the wrong hands could be disasterous and unwatchable. Luckily he has forged working relationships with two directors (Gondry and Spike Jonze) that can aptly handle his imagination.
Here, Gondry uses a variety of film techniques to put us inside Joel's (Carrey) head. scenes melt into each other in fantastic and surreal ways. Images flash across the screen and at times the viewer is meant to have difficulty determining what is actually happening and what is being imagined by Joel. All these techniques combine to effectively give the viewer an experience that is at times disorienting, yet always coherent from a story point of view.
It would have been easier for Gondry to turn in a film that would have been a critically acclaimed arthouse masterpiece, yet have no commercial appeal. But he manages to strike a stunning balance with Eternal Sunshine. There is a reason that it currently ranked in the mid 40's on imdb's top 250 list, right around the likes of To Kill a Mockingbird, Chinatown, and A Clockwork Orange.
I need to say a few words about this film's use of a device that is frequently misused and can be very annoying: the chronologically out of order scene. Pulp Fiction made it cool, Memento proved that it could be necessary, and 21 Grams drove me absoltely crazy by using it without reason. However, aside from Memento, Eternal Sunshine might be one of the very best uses of this device. The movie opens with Joel and Clementine (Winslet) meeting on a train. However, we start getting hints that perhaps this was not how they first met, and eventually it all makes sense. Sure, this scene could have been placed after their memories are erased and it still would have made perfect sense, but to place it at the beginning was a fine artistic choice. It seems like it IS the beginning of their story which makes it seem perfectly in place, and we only find out later that it is actually a scene from the middle of the tale.
Great choices like this are found throughout the film. Some are purely visual, such as the way scenes that are taking place inside Joel's head are melded together, and others are storytelling choices like the one previously described. Furthermore, the film trusts the viewer and does not patronize them at all. It allows us to unravel the mysteries at our own pace and gives plenty of time to do so.
The story of the peripheral characters (Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson & Elijah Wood) seems like padding for an otherwise thin plot, but is eventually tied back to the story of Joel and Clem in intriguing ways. I especially liked the twist that involved Wilkinson and Dunst. I did not see that coming. And while it eventually does further the main story in a very indirect way, it also gives us some more insight into this science fiction world that we are watching.
The acting is solid, which may come as a surprise to the many Carrey haters that are out there. He is restrained and subtle, like Robin WIlliams in his good dramatic roles. Winslet is her usualy great self and even Dunst, who usually annoys me, was good. The only complaint I have with her story, is that I would have been interested to see her character react to the information she is given by Wilkinson after that scene. She eventually makes a decision that effects the end of the film greatly, but she does so off camera. In fact, after she makes that decision, we do not see her again in the film.
Eternal Sunshine is just such a hard film to pin down. In fact you can find it on lists of science fiction films, romance films, surrealist films, and dramas. Quite an accomplishment.
Finally, and surprisingly, the film's ultimate lessons, or at least the ones that I took away from it, are very simple for such a complicated film. Joel and Clem did not communicate which each other when in their relationship. It just took a wild, crazy, and futuristic series of events for them to hear each others thoughts that should have been communicated directly. We are left with the idea that they just might be able to learn from their mistakes, even though they have no direct memory of them. Sure, there are other lessons about how it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, but I found the comminication theme to be much more interesting (and buried).
Rolling Rankings:
1. Pulp Fiction (#8)
1. Pulp Fiction (#8)
2. LA Confidential (#14)
3. A Prairie Home Companion (#11)
4. Raising Arizona (#13)
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (#16)
6. The Last Kiss (#15)
7. The Illusionist (#9)
8. Dr. No (#7)
9. Little Children (#12) 
10. Fahrenheit 9/11 (#10)
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