A Glorious Ray of `Sunshine'

Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2004)

`Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', directed by Michel Gondry (Human Nature) and written by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation), is at once an existential journey of the mind and at the same time the most heartfelt, honest, and poignant love story in years. This film is brilliant and beautiful with exquisite performances from its cast and a style and beauty that is unique. The film tells the story of Joel Barish (Jim Carrey), who has had his heart recently broken by Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) and his struggle to get over his heartbreak. When Joel sees Clementine and discovers she has had her memories of him erased, he decides that for his own peace of mind, he wants to have his memories of her erased as well. Things get really complicated and confused when during the process of erasing his memories, he realizes he wants to hold onto some of those moments and feels regret that he did not do things differently. Director Michel Gondry (who is probably best known as a director of videos for Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and Bjork) does an excellent job presenting the film with a somewhat B-movie style of film quality. Even the science fictional part of the film is downplayed as incidental rather than the focus (as it is presented as a medicinal procedure). At the same time, though, the film has an urban, suave beauty to it, as though the characters, sets, and costumes, all represent this simple yet stylish story that's true focus is the inner workings of the main character's thoughts and the love story those thoughts are focused on. His directorial style is reminiscent of Cameron Crowe in `Vanilla Sky' who uses music albums as his inspiration, but it is much grittier like a French New Wave film (which since director Michel Gondry hails from France, makes sense.) The majority of `Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' takes place within the mind of Joel, and within his many memories of Clementine, this offers the viewer insight into both the good and the bad of the relationship. Joel is desperate to erase the bad as he begins, but as he starts going back through the good moments, is just as desperate to hold onto them as one by one they slip further and further out of his grasp. The film has a strange surreal narrative as Joel builds new moments that never took place within his memories with Clementine in an effort to change or alter the process. It shows how a relationship can be both wonderful and fulfilling at certain moments, and horrible and stagnant at others. It is the most honest and real love story in years. Jim Carrey (The Truman Show) gives what is likely the best performance of his career (although some people might debate that `Man in the Moon' was better). His heartfelt and simple portrayal of Joel Barish is the backbone of this film and shows a depth and honesty that Carrey's viewers had never really seen from him before. Kate Winslet (Titanic), as Clementine, brings a lively, fun character to life and gives a perfect performance as always. The supporting cast, which includes Kirsten Dunst (The Virgin Suicides), Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom), Mark Ruffalo (The Last Castle), and Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings), all bring a fun atmosphere and kookiness to the film that is appropriate for an Andy Kaufman story. Overall the film is excellent and not much more can be said about it than that.