Entirely lovable film on entirely fascinating subjects, that still isn't perfect.

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2005)

Just got back from the theater and I liked it a lot. But then again, I just like moving images. It reminded me not so much of John Malkovich or Memento (to both of which it bears some resemblance), but rather of Lost In Translation.(note: for a short resume of it all, see bottom)
Why? Only a very small part of the message was the same (when and how do we burn down our bridges), although tackled here in a different way. In Translation the whole point was that you don't always have to burn down your bridges (life follows the course it has to follow), while this one says the same in a less subtle way, by, instead of looking at the "standing at the precipice"-moment of decision (like LiT did), going beyond the decision point and saying "see whY you shouldn't? there's the good stuff!" and ultimately also ending up saying the river flows the way it should flow. Still, plus.
But the general atmosphere was fairly similar, and that's what did it for me - yep, sometimes just the atmosphere, sound dumb I know. This lukewarm melancholy that comes over you for example when you remember when you were little the first time a girl did something to you that made you understand - for the very first time - that you were something special in someone else's life. It's the whole melancholy that gets built up by focusing on the Good Stuff while sh*t is happening. LiT however does a very neat trick in looking for solid ground in finding a different way of being Here and Now and Self; Spotless Mind's message is on the Good in Memories. The whole memory stuff is my thing. I love it. I see it in every film (mainly because I try to see many films about it). So that's another plus.
So the minus? Well, I had the impression the script got messed around with, and now that I've read some of the trivia here I'm sure it was. A) The tone isn't balanced at all. People DON'T go see this thinking it is a comedy - because it isn't (Lost In Translation made the same error selling itself as one). It has some fun moments that successfully counter the melancholy, but the moments are scattershot. The start is good, because confusing and suddenly gripping. But the whole sequence where they begin to erase his memory and the erasers get stoned is boring and pointless (except for seeing Kirsten Dunst in underwear) and serves to hide the fact that the main story doesn't have a lot to go on (i.e., the memory erasing itself is kinda nifty the first time, but...) B) The point they're trying to make is diffuse. When Patrick uses Joel's lines to get to Clementine (another useless side plot) you get this naive "it's not about the right words, but about the right person" idea. They try to tell us we should learn to live with painful memories; at the same time, there's the idea of making a relationship work if you keep focusing on the good stuff; there's the idea that the same stuff always happens (though they toned that down in the final script version... which may just not have been the thing to do); etc.
The bottom line here: they should've decided on which point to make, what tone to go for, so or make it more of a comedy, or, my option, cut the annoying bits, and focus on the role of memory in social life and the actual NAture of the relationship between a very good Carrey, and an, as always ab-so-lu-te-ly FAbulous Kate Winslet (people, she is GRAND). As it is now, while nice (yes, that word) with some wonderful moments, and nibbling at some great topics, you still get the nagging feeling you've been watching the exposition of a gimmick, rather that the wonderful film it could have been.
The Beck cover song rules!