The Most Original Romance Film I Have Seen

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2005)

What a brilliant, original and challenging film this is. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind likely falls into the category of romantic comedy, but that would put it on the same shelf as America's Sweethearts or Two Weeks Notice. This is immeasurably more.
Charlie Kaufman is the prolific writer of quirky and bizarre screenplays. Since 1999, he has written three films (including this one) that you can strongly argue were the best pictures of the year. He writes unique and almost deliberately odd movies, but they never some across as weirdness for its own sake.
How to describe the plot? (This is not a plot-driven film). Jim Carrey is Joel - as bit of a loser who lacks confidence in himself. Kate Winslet is Clementine, a blue haired off the wall kooky chick, the exact type that Joel should repel. They start a relationship and are in love.
As the relationship goes sour, they have a quick and nasty break up. Clementine goes to firm that can erases memories and has Joel erased from her mind. Joel decides to do the same, but his memories of Clementine are so deeply entrenched that they refuse to go away easily.
Kaufman and director Michel GOndry take this simple sounding premise, tell it in a non-linear format and take it in directions no viewer can predict. The result is a touching, haunting and moving emotional experience that will linger with you long after the film is over. If you liked Being John Malkovich and Adapation, chances are you will like Eternal Sunshine as well. This films could not be more different, but they have the common threads Kaufmans pen.
Carrey and Winslet are backed up by an amazing support cast, including ELijah Wood, Kirten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson and Mark Ruffalo.
Here you have a memory loss film where the characters choose to loose their memory. The film examines the moral, social and even logistic implications of this, without losing the nature of the romance. It takes every convention of it genre, chucks it out the window and starts from there. ***1/2 out of ****.