one unusual love story

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2005)

In a dazed morning, Joel is heading to work, yet takes an impulsive move and ditches; heading to Mantauk. On his day visit he meets Clementine. She energetic and speaks before thinking, the complete contrast of Joel who is very closed and reserved; yet they connect just as the saying goes. It's three days before valentines and Joel has hit a wall; Clementine doesn't know Joel anymore. Clementine has erased Joel from her memory, which in effect makes Joel do the same. Lacuna Inc has devised an operation that will destroy memories for people wanting to leave a bad memory behind. While Joel is asleep, we wander through Joel's memories of their relationship; starting at the latest times of their relationship falling apart to the beginning where the connection first happened. When Joel starts seeing the good times with Clementine, he doesn't want to lose them, with him and Clementine racing through memories and his mind to stop them before he loses her completely and forgotten her.
After the success of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, Charlie Kaufman has become synonymous with eccentric stories. While Confessions of a dangerous mind was more straight forward, Eternal Sunishine returns him to the non conventional world; the extreme left field. The concept of erasing memories is wonderfully explored by Kaufman and Gondry. While everyone has memories they want to forget, its those that define us. Lose is a powerful emotion that we don't understand till we have lost, as it is that reality check of life. Though Joel had fixated on the worst times, it wasn't till he remember what made their relationship so great that he realised what he was losing, trying to desperately in vain to salvage what he could.
Michel Gondry's direction compliments Kaufman's story. Gondry having started in music videos has incorporated that creative style, making a very off centered world; for an off centered story. The memories of Joel are creatively envisioned, where they start to merge on each other. There is so much detail to ESOTSM, even after several views there are minute details to pick and find. How objects start to disappear or blur are so perfectly done, at times you don't realise things are disappearing. A great scene is when Joel and Clementine are talking in a bookstore and all the books start turning white and blank; it really hits the situation of the story and brings out the symbolism that Kaufman has embedded.
Jim Carey while being a comedy master gives his best performance. It such a huge leap from Carey to act such a depressed and introverted character, yet he shines for it. He has shown he has a broader scope of ability from his comic eccentricities. Kate Winslet perfectly matches Clementine, adding so much energy and contrasting Joel's rigidness. While Kate makes Clementine so energetic, she creates this mysterious aurora that there is more too her, she is really insecure but she hides her emotions behind a facade of impulses. Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo as the technicians performing the procedure, both play it minimalistic. They don't show much emotions, yet your still able to understand what their thinking. Kirsten Dunst gives one of her better performances as the receptionist of Lacuna Inc, same to Tom Wilkinson as Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, head of Lacuna Inc.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind is such a spectacular love story, as it never falls into the clichéd formula. There is so much heart in Kaufman's non linear story. It's a mind bending story, yet one of the most original and heart warming movies you'll see. You seriously want to hug someone after watching this.