Carrey's Best Film!! Oscar time?

Rating: 9/10 (1 November 2004)

From hot screenwriter of the moment, Charlie Kaufman comes this superbly quirky and unique comedy/romance. It's a strange blend of humour and drama with a science fiction premise. Basically after he breaks up with his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet), Joel (Jim Carrey) finds out that he has been erased from her memory by the lacuna corporation. It's a technique that puts patients into a dream as the relive memories of what they want erased and as they relive them they are wiped out. Joel then decides that he wants the procedure because the pain is too much.
Kaufmans script is superbly imaginative, if far fetched and combined with the imaginative visual stamp from director Michel Gondry (whose music video background really helps) the film is highly unique.
This film also has to be the one that gets Jim Carrey an Oscar nomination. This is by far his best performance it is so subtle and restrained with real pathos that he completely encompasses the character and as such there isn't a hint of Carrey being Carrey. There is no mugging or face pulling of any sort, no flailing of limbs at all. It is a masterful performance of restraint and real accomplishment. Kate Winslet similarly movies away from her image of Kate Winslet as the effervescent Clementine. She is equally superb. She really does portray the quirkiness of Clementine's personality superbly. There is also great support from Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffulo, Kirsten Dunst and Tom Wilkinson.
This really is a film that is so far from your typical Hollywood romance that it is immensely enjoyable and simplistic. The plot on occasion near convulsion but it comes clear excellently and the way the beginning links with the end is great stuff. ****1/2