Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind..

Rating: 6/10 (27 July 2005)

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", one of the most overrated films of recent years, is mostly a parable about how humans should accept their destiny instead of escaping it. But while the general meaning is fairly simple, the script is complex, using a non-linear narrative (a la "Lost Highway" or "Memento"), confusing past and present, dream and reality, the lives of the main characters etc.
The direction further enhances this elaborate scheme: there are cut-ups, special effects, imaginative montage techniques, but also a post-modern overlapping between genres. Thus the film is sometimes a lyrical love-story, at other times a comedy, realist drama, Freudian analysis and so on. Unfortunately, a big part of the movie resorts to Hollywood melodrama (complete with generic sentimental soundtrack music). It feels as if the director is mostly interested in showing off his skills rather than presenting an interesting and organic movie. Vastly inferior to the similar "L'Appartement" (1996, Gilles Mimouni).