Like Kaufman? See it. Not? Don't!

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2005)

Forget the director. Forget the stars. This film is all Charles Kaufman. If you like his unique angle of vision, you'll probably love this film. If you don't, you'll doubtless find it un-involving and ultimately a bore. I'm in the second category. I've yet to see anything Kaufman has written that I've really liked. On the face of it, this one would seem to have possibilities. Two characters -- Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet -- with exasperating personalities have fallen in love and then out of love. They each go separately to a doctor who claims to be able to erase a person entirely from the patient's mind. It works on Carrey's character but not entirely. Not an original plot but given a Kaufmanesque twist, played for laughs and romance rather than for mystery or horror. As in other films Kaufman has written, there's a hall of mirrors aspect to the film that deliberately confuses the viewer. Ho hum. Despite a charming performance by Winslet and pretty good ones by Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo in the subplot, this movie lost traction with me about half way through. Frankly, I didn't give a damn what happened to the characters. The ratings the film received from critics and from contributors to this site would amaze me except that I long ago learned that "no one ever went broke underestimating" the taste of young American sophisticates (with apologies to the author of the original quote). It would not surprise me to learn that this audience has already made Charles Kaufman a very rich young man.