All joy wants eternity

Rating: 10/10 (21 August 2006)

There is a quote from Nietzsche's Zarathustra, something along the lines of, when you say yes to one joy, you say yes to all woe. There is a moment, half way through the erasure process for Joel, when he cries out to the doctor erasing his memory, "Please let me keep this memory, just this one." With that, Joel is essentially accepting the entire course and swoop of his love for Clemmentine; not just her confession that she feared being ugly, or her tangerine sweater, or even her crotch, but her changeability, her alcohol consumption; even the painful end of the affair, all for one memory. And at the end, despite his having forgotten everything about her, and despite knowing from her that the relationship is going to fail, Joel says yes one more time.
This is a wonderful movie. I had resisted seeing it because of Jim Carrey; for the same reason I avoid Robin Williams in serious roles, when I see them acting drama, they always look like the improv is busting to get out. Here, though, Carrey never gives a hint that he is about to go all Ace Ventura on us. Instead, he gives a restrained, effective performance as Joel. Winslet as Clemmentine is likewise fine.
But the real stars are the direction and the screenplay. The movie creates an unnerving feel throughout, especially in the memory sequences, with quick cutting and effectively unsteady camera work. The screenplay is intelligent and witty, and makes effective use of the non-linear story - we may be jumping around but we are never really lost.
Well, except maybe once; the circular nature of the story - it begins more or less at the end - came as a nice surprise to me. But it is honest, the clues are there - the differences in the "meet" story Joel tells, Elijah Woods's unexplained presence at Clemmentine's building, Joel's not knowing My Darling Clemmentine.... A nice job by the screenplay.
By the way, on a couple occasions, characters sing My Darling Clemmentine. Note that both times, they stop just before the line, "You are lost and gone forever/Dreadful sorry Clemmentine." Not as long as we have memory she's not.
One of the best films I have seen in years. It will live in my memory... I think.