Eternally My Favorite Film

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2004)

I don't know how to describe "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Cliché, I know, but there doesn't seem to be words to describe just how exquisite a film I think it is. I feel like I shouldn't even comment on it because I can't do it justice. There don't seem to be enough adjectives, in any language, to describe how amazing a movie it truly is. But, I guess I have to begin somewhere. Eternal Sunshine is an indescribably marvelous film (isn't that an oxymoron? No, I think I'm probably the moron here,lol). It's a love story unlike any other I've seen before. It isn't filled with the typical Hollywood melodrama that so many so-called "love stories" possess where the perfect girl and the perfect guy love each other and want to be together, but they don't know it at first, and somehow, despite their perfection, they can't admit their true feelings until the end when they live happily ever after. Cue the doves flying into the sunset. Eternal Sunshine is nothing like that. It isn't the love story of two otherwise perfect people living in this ethereal and ideal world where the problems are so easily solved. It's a love story between real characters with real faults and flaws, quirks and idiosyncracies. Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) are human. He's shy, timid, and introverted, she's outgoing, vivacious, but yet somehow broken and sad, unable to maintain a sense of normalcy and familiarity. Clementine becomes bored quite easily, and Joel is threatened when Clementine cannot be exactly what he wants her to be. He gets annoyed at her for the very same reasons he fell in love with her, and their relationship suffers as a result of their incapacity to be what the other needs, and to keep their romance fresh. Clementine opts to undergo a new procedure to have her memories of Joel wiped clean, and he has to come to terms with that and decide if he really wants to erase her from her memories. I don't want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven't seen it, so I'll wrap it up here. You'll fall in love with them both. So, watch it because it's a great story, it doesn't have a linear plot but you will be mesmerized by the acting and the vivid visuals and the overall beautiful cinematography of the film. This film has left me with Eternal Sunshine of my Spotless Mind.