One silly little idea, done to death

Rating: 4/10 (3 May 2005)

Talk about running an idea into the ground! This film takes one somewhat trite sci-fi idea spawned during the pulp era -- a helmet-like machine that can be fitted over the head to erase selected memories -- and lets us watch it work on two quirky, unhappy lovers... and that's about it. Way too much of the movie involves the flashily filmed fragmentary memories, dreams, half-memories, fantasies, etc. etc. experienced by the Jim Carrey character as he undergoes this improbable procedure (which proves the excuse for a number of special effects). Watching such fragments, on and on, is about as tedious as listening to someone recount his dream. I've seen three films so far written by Charles Kaufman, and the only one I've enjoyed was "Adaptation." This one -- like "Being John Malkovich" -- began to bore and annoy me before it was halfway through.