Style and pretense over substance... typical intellectualoid movie

Rating: 6/10 (15 April 2011)

The premise was intriguing and it offered plenty of viable developments. Unfortunately we get treated to a somewhat predictable "the beginning is the end, the end is the beginning" circular flashback story arch, already seen in Memento (now that was a great movie) and Irreversible, just to name a few.
Things start to go south, fast, as soon as the whole erasing process, something that is supposed to be very advanced procedure, is treated and handled with the same secrecy, care and professionalism college students put into cleaning porn-infected computers... A half-assed side-activity than can be performed everywhere, while doing something more fun in the meantime. Seriously, such a life-altering procedure is performed at the patient's place by two creepy guys? And the security of the records is so sloppy a receptionist can go ahead and mail them to the patient who are supposed to forget about the whole thing?
That's simply preposterous, a poorly thought-out "deus ex machina" that has no place in an alleged cinematic masterpiece.
Not to mention the outcome of the whole love story... Despite finding out they had already met, loved and erased each other, Joel and Clementine STILL decide to give themselves another chance.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't really get into a relationship with a girl who thinks I'm a wimpy and boring loser who'll made her loathe herself after a while. Nor I would like to date a girl who I find obnoxious, sad and a bit slutty too.
Does the movie try to convey (shove down our throats rather..) a message of hope? Or is it just hopeless stubbornness? A faux "happy ending" just because it would have been rude sending the audience home without some sort of closure?
Joel and Clementine basically wasted two years of their life... we got away with losing just two hours... Unfortunately we can remember the movie. So it's debatable who drew the shortest straw here ;)
"Eternal Sunshine" is the typical intellectualoid movie, with a good, but underdeveloped, idea behind it but also with too much quirkiness to actually work. Visually it's pleasant and well done, capturing the disorientation induced by the dreamy sequences, acting is OK...
Cinematically it's "spotless", but as for the story arch it's definitely "plotless".