The most moving, unblinking and surprising exploration of a relationship

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2007)

Although packaged in fictional science and a pretzel logic plot, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is actually one of the deepest and most honest explorations of the risk, passion, irrationality and fragility of human relationships. Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) are both mismatched and perfect for each other. We feel the true attraction of Joel and Clementine, while also seeing how they trip each other up. These contrary elements can be found in most real-world relationships, but are seldom portrayed with such truth and reality as in this movie. Usually in movies the tension between the attraction of partners and the flaws that repel them is treated as a stock motivation for the characters. In Eternal Sunshine, these features are deeply explored by the characters and revealed to us in ways that more conventional movies cannot approach.
This raw truth in the movie is created in equal parts by the performances of Carrey and Winslet and by the unusual technological challenge to their relationship and the looping and reversing narrative that results. Every moment that Joel and Clementine are together the electricity flows between them--both positive and negative. This movie is a high water mark for screen chemistry between actors, and all of the chemistry fills in the full and passionate relationship of the characters. Forget about the twisting plot and the memory-erasing technology; the relationship, chemistry and performances of Carrey and Winslet alone would make this a great movie.
Nevertheless, the fictional technology at the core of Eternal sunshine allowed Joel and Clementine to make choices that we in the real world cannot; and the consequences for Joel and Clementine only serve to intensify and deepen the revelation of their characters and relationship to themselves and to the movie audience. It is the kind of technology that could have been a gimmick or a distraction, but instead was used by Charlie Kaufman (screenplay) and Michael Gondry (director) to explore what makes a relationship tick. Yes, the world of this movie is completely strange and the narrative structure is fragmented and looping. But the relationship between Joel and Clementine always remains central and every odd situation and every twist back illuminates the characters. The "trickiness" of the screenplay is never used just to be clever or throw the audience off.
The strange and fictional science of Eternal Sunshine takes Joel, Clementine and us to places we have never gone in movies or in real life, but every aspect of Joel and Clementine as persons in a relationship are completely real and fully realized. One of the greatest relationship movies ever.