Hello Sunshine

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2004)

The Charlie Kaufman movie with perhaps the most mainstream appeal; a movie in the Vanilla Sky-mold with an abundance of plot twists.
I really loved this film. The idea of having memories erased is made to seem both interesting and horrible. I spent a lot of time wondering which memories I myself would have erased if this technology was available, to only decide later that despite all the sham and drudgery of rememberance, I wouldn't want to live any other way. And isn't that the thing that makes a successful memory- to transport the audience through an experience, to carry them on an emotional journey? This is a cathartic film, completely saturated with a fantasy that feels inconceivable but becomes quite real. As I left the theater, I overheard a lot of people complaining about this movie. Maybe an affinity for Charlie Kaufman is a pre-requisite for seeing this movie. Eternal Sunshine has all the characteristics of Kaufman's past works, though ultimately surpasses those former works in imagination and emotional profundity. A movie worth seeing over and over