Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 9/10

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2004)

Now this is truly amazing. Writer Charlie Kaufman wrote a comedy that I didn't find overrated. Although I really liked Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, his one straight drama, Being John Malkovich had no place to go and Adaptation. had something missing to it. But Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a genius creation. Not only is it his funniest movie, but it's also the most coherent and most enjoyable movie.
Joel (Jim Carrey) is a rather milquetoast man who meets up with free spirit Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they become romantically involved. However, they endure a messy breakup and Clementine goes to a business called Lacuna, Inc., where she has all of her memories of Joel erased. Not wanting to be left out, Joel also goes to have his memory erased. However, soon after it begins, Joel realizes that he wants to keep the memory of Clementine, so he tries to reverse the process.
Director Michel Gondry (who worked previously with Kaufman on Human Nature) found a way to not only have the movie make sense, but to have some striking visuals (barely any, if any, that were done by computer fx) thrown in, also. For the most part, we see what is going on in Joel's mind as Clementine is being erased, so it's always interesting to see what will happen. The story, although a certain subplot seemed unnecessary, flowed together nicely, and, although told out of sequence, made perfect sense. That made no sense, but you'll understand it if you see the movie.
I wouldn't say Carrey put his most subtle work here (that honor goes to The Truman Show), but he did do a good job, and, as I have heard, is a VERY early Oscar contender for next year. That I doubt, but it will be interesting to watch. Winslet (who has faded from her Titanic stardom) is also quite good. However, the supporting cast, including Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, and Tom Wilkinson, leave something to be desired. They don't seem to really want to be in this movie as much as the others do.
Overall, Eternal Sunshine is a surprising film. It's surprisingly funny, surprisingly entertaining, surprisingly dramatic, and, most of all, surprisingly easy to follow.
My rating: 9/10
Rated R for language and some drug and sexual content.