Spotless.

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2004)

The premise of "Eternal Sunshine" is simple enough, if strange: a relationship has gone sour, and there is a procedure available that each person can use to erase all their memories of the other.
I was fortunate enough to attend a screening last night at which both director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman were present. Everything the marketing for "Eternal Sunshine..." led me to believe was absolutely wrong, but the reality was a thousand times better.
Anyone who has followed Kaufman's work (notably "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation") will recognize his touch at once. "Eternal Sunshine," however, has a striking difference from the other films. Though often dark, it is, at heart, optimistic and foremost: it is a love story.

There are many things this movie isn't. It is not a "gimmick film." It is not a "Jim Carrey movie." (In fact, this has to be the best Carrey performance I've ever seen, and probably the best he's done.) It is not really a drama, neither is it really a comedy. Ultimately, it's a unique film with familiar themes, and one of my new favorites.