A creative and original film.

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2014)

I had a chance to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind four or five years ago and remembered being confused the first time around. But I wasn't turned off by the movie; in fact, I gave it another go because I was hooked by how creative and original it was. It has since become my favorite movie of all time. For this reason, I only have nice things to say about the film.
Directed by Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind follows Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) who finds out that his girlfriend, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) has erased him from her memory thanks to Lacuna, Inc., an innovative company that ensures customers will get their undesirable memories deleted. Joel learns that the reason behind this is because his ex is currently not happy with their relationship. Heartbroken by her action, Joel decided to go through the same procedure to ease his pain only to realize that there are also those memories that are worth keeping.
The premise sounds promising enough, and the way the movie was executed was mesmerizing. Written with such originality by Charlie Kaufman (the credits also go to Pierre Bismuth and Gondry himself), the story was brought onto screen by Gondry with creativity and satisfaction. Gondry was deft when it comes to realizing sci-fi elements in the script on screen without looking superficial or unrealistic. Gondry also employed the non-linear narrative style to convey the story, rendering the movie ambiguous yet remarkable and effective especially when it comes to the memory scenes in which the procedure works by erasing the latest memory to the earliest. Such filmic technique constitutes the heart and soul of the film.
Joel becomes hesitant about the procedure once he relives his memories and at one point in the film, he even decides to call it quit in order to keep the good memories with Clementine. He then tries to escapes with Clementine by running off the map the erasure team has created in Joel's brain as part of the process, thus disrupting it. The cinematography in many of these sequences was visually impressive with some cool camera tricks (e.g., forced perspective to realize the kitchen scenes where Joel travels back to his four-year-old self). Some minor special effects, editing, and creative mise-en-scène were employed in a way that create some of the most bizarre scenes in the film. The score by Jon Brion fits in with the tone of the film perfectly. Some of the pieces were just beautiful.
The acting couldn't have been better, especially from the two leads who gave the performances of their lifetimes. Both Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet shared a great chemistry together. Carrey injected so much life to his character and was surprisingly remarkable and entertaining as Joel and deserved an Oscar nomination for this. He did the comedic scenes as well as the dramatic ones in the film. Winslet was a breath of fresh air as Clementine and shone in her role as Clementine. She brought her character to screen with spontaneity, vitality and charisma. It is completely understandable why Joel loves Clem so much. The supporting cast does not go unnoticed. Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst were a lot of fun to watch. Tom Wilkinson was fine as Dr. Mierzwiak, who plays an important role for the plot. The backstory and revelation of his character becomes a poignant twist that serves to question the idea of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind succeeded in combining drama with comedy and sci-fi. It's not pretty nor sugar-coated in its approach, but surreal and bizarre that results in a powerful emotional ride and delight of the film. The movie will stand the test of time as being one of the most creative and original story ever written and made.