Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Director: Michel Gondry
Actors: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson
What if you could erase someone from your mind completely? Well now you can find out. But, let me start at the beginning. The movie starts out with Joel Barish (Carrey) getting up in his apartment. Not feeling well, he decides to skip work and go somewhere. As a seemingly spur of the moment decision, he decides to go to Montauk. On a train ride there, he meets Clementine Kruczynski (Winslet) and they decide to spend the day together. Despite their obviously different personalities, they have a good time together. The next day he takes her home and she asks if she can come to his house. When she goes to get her stuff, Joel is met by Patrick who asks him if what he is doing here (Clementine's apartment). Flashback to the past or jump to the present (take your pick), Joel has just ended a two year long relationship with Clementine. When he visits his friends Carrie (Jane Adams) and Rob (David Cross), he finds out that Clementine has had him erased from her memory. Upset, Joel visits Lacuna, Inc. where she had her memory erased and is appaled to find out that the procedure is not a joke. He then asks to have the same procedure done to him out of spite. When the procedure starts in his apartment, we see Joel and Clementine's moments together in reverse. While this is happening, other backstories occur such as Mary Svevo trying to contain her feelings for the head of the clinic Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Wilkinson) and Patrick, who works for the company and assists with the procedures, starting a relationship with Clementine and using Joel's memory to help this. Mary eventually learns she had the procedure done to herself to erase Howard from her memory when his wife found out. She the steals all the patient tapes and quits. In Joel's mind, we see him interacting in his memories because he decides he loves Clementine and doesn't want her to be erased. He can not stop it and his memories are erased. The next morning he goes to Montauk and meets Clementine, neither remembering the other. Mary has sent the patient tapes to all of the patients and Joel and Clementine learn they are former lovers. Even though they know that they are too differnt for each other and their relationship will probably not work, they do not care and decide to start their relationship anew.
This film delves into the subconscious to explore memories of a man and his love for a woman. The film shows these memories in different ways such as picture quality deteriorating, limited light, and many scenes of the entire memory just going white. This realism was a good way to potray it because, like dreams, memories are not picture perfect. In my own dreams, I always feel like there is a circle around the images so I cannot see the entire thing. This film does this same kind of thing. While this film is a romantic drama, it is very science fiction like because most of the film does take place in the subconscious. This film has great performances headed by the incomparable Jim Carrey. The film deserves the praise it has and is truly one of the best films of the decade.
Rating: 4
Matt
This film delves into the subconscious to explore memories of a man and his love for a woman. The film shows these memories in different ways such as picture quality deteriorating, limited light, and many scenes of the entire memory just going white. This realism was a good way to potray it because, like dreams, memories are not picture perfect. In my own dreams, I always feel like there is a circle around the images so I cannot see the entire thing. This film does this same kind of thing. While this film is a romantic drama, it is very science fiction like because most of the film does take place in the subconscious. This film has great performances headed by the incomparable Jim Carrey. The film deserves the praise it has and is truly one of the best films of the decade.
Rating: 4
Matt
