Fabulous and inventive storytelling

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2004)

The idiosyncratic pen of Charlie Kaufman, who brought us the quirky and inventive Being John Malkovitch, has excelled himself in this offering with a movie that not only boasts originality of plot but a tender love story that avoids all excesses of sentimentality with razor-edge script and magnetic performances from Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey. At the end of an unusual and loving relationship with Carrey, Winslet's character answers an ad to have the (now painful) memory 'erased'. Carrey, dumfounded, follows suit, only to become resistant half-way through the process. What sounds like a dedicated sci-fi story is presented in such a way as to be perfectly ordinary and acceptable to a mainstream audience, allowing us to focus on the real dynamics of relationships and memories rather than get caught up in some high tech idea. Lacuna, the company that does the 'erasing', is headed by Tom Wilkinson - a very homely type who has hit on a process that combines psychology with zapping pinpointed areas of the brain in a sort of limited intentional brain damage exercise. A love story this unusual that also flows like original poetry is a sufficiently unique event to entrance most cinema goers.