Warm and realistic romantic drama

Rating: 9/10 (11 September 2008)

Jim Carrey (The Truman show) stars as Joel, a man who learns his girlfriend has had him erased from her memory. Not wanting to suffer, Joel goes in for the same procedure.
Eternal Sunshine is a true romantic drama, telling a realistic and dramatic tale of relationships, through the good and the bad, and with some stunning performances, writing and direction, make a wonderful heart wrenching drama.
Carrey gives one of his finest performances as Joel, a man wanting to erase his girlfriend from his memory. We saw Carrey's wonderful dramatic side in The Truman Show, and here he builds on it with a deep and moving performance as a lonely and upset man, and is brilliant alongside Oscar nominated Kate Winslet (Titanic).
Winslet gives an outstanding performance as Joel's girlfriend Clementine, one of her finest on screen roles. The two have great on screen chemistry and create the necessary drama to go with a wonderful written plot.
Though slightly confusing, the plot has all the right elements to justify the romantic drama genre, including a realistic portrayal of relationships, the good, the bad and the easy and the hard. The good times the pair go through, including lying on an ice pond and observing the constellations are what dreams are made of, and the accusations of nights out without your partner are what nightmares consist of, giving the film the realism required to justify the genre and the reason behind the memory being erased.
The ideology of memory erasure has no doubt been in the mind of anyone who has had a truly bad relationship or experience, and the dramatic twists Eternal Sunshine gives will make you think again.
Great support is given by Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings), Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac) and Kirsten Dunst's (Spider-man) best ever performance.
Flashbacks of Joel and Clementine's time together are directed well, with some comedic moments, including a 4 year old Joel, which is Carrey at his comedic best.
The plot loses a bit of ground by jumping around at different times during the opening credits, not to mention the ending will require another watch, but is definitely worth it