Skeptical, until I fell in love...

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2005)

You either love it or you hate it, but one thing is for sure; it's not going to be easy to forget. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, has not only, with the help of Gondry, taken his viewers though a well structured yet completely topsy-turvy maze of the inner workings of the human psyche but has managed to place the two main characters (Jim Carey and Kate Winslet) at the core of a classic bouncy yet re-invented screwball relationship scenario.
What is very interesting and thought provoking about this film is how they approached the journey of the mind as it filters through Joel's memories, not only allowing him to see things as they were, but being able to place himself inside these memories and interact with the people they contain. This idea supplies us with a very accurate interpretation with the same helplessness we feel when trapped in a bad nightmare. It is through sequences like these the once music video director Michel Gondry can strut his stuff, providing us with a very stylistic representation of events, whether it be the disintegration of his childhood home or the teleportation through distant memories which in some cases lands him in bed in the middle of the beach where he first met Clementine. We join Joel as he travels through doors to places which should be miles and even years apart. But it works! Even though Gondry's visuals represent a surprisingly splintered path the movie is very fluid and testament to Gondry's ability to superbly compliment Kaufman's vision.
The relationship in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind rings true to the screwball romantic comedy where after a series of absurdly blessed adventures of beautiful surrealism the characters may live happily ever after in their own clumsy way. We affectionately embrace the age old philosophy that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. The film has given us a unique approach to the human psyche and allowed us to observe the value of our memories and how we choose to articulate them. If you were to erase your memories, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a keeper.