The "to be saved" becomes the "savior" - nice reversal

Rating: 10/10 (10 May 2004)

In ESOTSM, part of the reason you don't find the urgency in Carrey's character's mind is that his character isn't at all an urgent person. He's a self-deprecated man, someone used to losing but tired more of the constant hurting and loss than the struggle to avoid it - hence one of his most painful lines - the delivery of the "wait! just wait!" scene in the hallway...
Even there, at the most emotionally and decisively urgent moment in his life, his character still fails to deliver the sort of splendor most other hollywood romance films would have overdone, much to the delight of pop-and-teen audiences.
It's because of that that he seemingly slides through his mind, through his memories, and never finds anything overwhelmingly stressful - even in the kitchen scene where he's remembering being four, his emotional subcontext is how much he just wants to be picked up - again feeling unneeded and discarded, but still a part of things, but not throwing a tantrum - no urgency.
It's this sort of unsteady glide, that painful grate against the simple flow of time and life, that his character is reacting against through the whole film - the breakout is his unconscious trying, trying, trying to do more than just accept and fade - and the stunning concept that most miss is that CLEM, of all people, saves HIM. She implants in his mind the idea of "Meet me in Montauk," hence the one we'd expect to need saving for all her disgraces actually becomes the stronger of the two - the savior of both of them.
I loved this movie and can't wait to see it again.
Mike :)