A beautiful, sentimental exploration of relationships *SPOILERS*

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2004)

Though I disagree with many thematic interpretations (because of my biases about relationships and the mind), I find the most praise of this film accurate.
From Carrey's remarkably believable humanity, introversion, and the subtle yet unmistakable way in which his emotions leak through an apparently sterile exterior to Winslet's chaotic, fun, and intensely emotional ways to the supporting casts rock solid performances, I think it would be hard to say there was finer acting in any film this year.
Until I watched the little vignette of the DVD, I appreciated Gondry's direction less. And I think that is as it should be. Direction one can take for granted is typically solid and reflective of the writing. Some of the technical challenges met and the spontaneity in the direction were very impressive. In lesser hands, I believe this story could easily have come across much more poorly.
The musical score complemented the film, never incongruous or distracting. The moods produced by the music did a fine job of reflecting the paradoxes and ambiguities in this complex film.
It's my personal belief that the writing in a film is the true guide of a movie, which is generally a story, and a great film must have a solid writing foundation. The more I see of Charlie Kaufmann, the more I like. I appreciate his quirkiness that produces movies which involve greater imagination and unfamiliar territory. I also feel like he has an excellent understanding of his own feelings and desires. I get this sense because I get the feeling I can relate to his movies and that he can understand how I feel which, because I have no true basis to understand others, makes me suspect he understands emotions as a whole. I'll make the hyperbolic statement of saying that Kaufmann understands humanity. You can sort of discern Kaufmann's understanding of humanity and feel it intuitively though it's not logically accessible.
Kaufmann makes efforts to portray the complexities that occur within the human mind and related to being in love with what I would consider to be obviously the wrong person. I'm a sucker for a script and film that does a fine job of portraying internal mind states and thoughts, for a film which details paradoxes and complexities involving human emotion, and a film to which I can personally relate. The film scores on all counts. Gondry's solid understanding of the script brings Kaufmann's script to life. Though I'm biased toward films involving the mind like Fight Club, Altered States and Freejack, I believe given that the mind is our way of understanding the world, it is a fairly applicable subject to all.
Thematically, I depart from other reviewers. Many see a positive statement about love, giving it a second chance, or believed that Carrey's character really had something in his relationship at the end.
I think the two main characters make naive, poor relationship decisions. The two are so clearly incompatible (Kate's character is bright and self-honest enough to see it) yet they pursue a relationship a second time with obvious clues (particularly the knowledge that they hated each other only days before, prior to having their brains wiped) that it will fail. I don't believe they have any kind of reasonable chance at another relationship. I think instead that Joel desperately needs a human connection and that Clementine is self-destructive consistent with high levels of internal chaos. I don't think that's the theme though.
I think the movie, more than anything, stresses that there is positive in loving relationships (the cliché "tis better to have loved...") and that people need certain things at certain times. Joel and Clementine need something like each other and once they are excised from each others' minds, they again seek their psychological and emotional fuel.
We see clichéd notion that one cannot wipe the slate of the human mind. We see this in Robocop, A Long Kiss Goodnight, Total Recall and many other films. We see a sense of destiny related to the mind, a sense of complexity to the mind that promotes the notion the mind is too complex to fully understand. Joel and Clementine seem to both have some leftover trauma from their relationship leaving Joel much more withdrawn than in his earliest memories, and Clementine panicky (responding completely differently to a different person, but with identical context and words) like when the Patrick reenacts the scene on the ice attempting to seduce Clementine. Is Kaufmann promoting a separation of the mind into conscious and non-conscious parts? Do the non-conscious parts of these two bring them together? Is it all some intangibly sexual attraction that drove them and once the conscious part is gone they are free to pursue each other? Clearly, the fact that the two pursue each other, going out of their way to interact is indicative of some intangible attraction.
Kaufmann searches for the positive in painful relationships with incredibly poignant results as Joel travels back to the more loving and less hostile, dysfunctional periods in his relationship with Clementine. I went from not liking Joe's boring and socially inept ways to relating to him profoundly. The film reinforces the idea that all experiences are ultimately positive. Being able to critically examine the past and feel melancholy, rather than angry or hurt gives Joel his most human appearance, providing the film with its greatest tenderness. The last ditch effort to save Clementine's memory shows wisdom and short-sighted thinking (considering mostly how he felt right then rather than long-term consequences) and show that Joel is impulsive and flawed just like the rest of us.
These characters have the tragic (to Greek proportions) interaction that makes them very human and very easy with which an audience to identify. While the technical and substantive components of this film are truly great, I think it is the human component that makes this film most impressive.