Wonderful - yet could been much more...

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2006)

I decided to finally bite the bullet and watch this film after many a recommendation from friends and colleagues. As I looked further I saw many familiar faces and institutions - Charlie Kaufman; screenplay writer for Adaptation (a nine out of ten for me), scriptwriter/composer of Being John Malkovich. Focus Films who were involved with a number of films I highly regard namely '21 Grams'.
Charlie Kaufman presents, a film which promises to out do any of my expectations. It promises to take me by the hand and make me feel that anything is possible; reverse my psyche to a childlike state, and take me to a world of lost memories, undying love - a world where imagination overrules all. Let us dive in and see what all the fuss is about.
I must say, approximately twenty four hours after pressing play, I keep having Freudian slips; my mind keeps re-living moments of the film, throwing them into my conscious for me to ponder, decipher. It is hard to pinpoint the magic of this film, as many aspects of it are somewhat flawed, yet it remains so, so beautiful. It leaves a feeling of contempt aimed at our ultimate creator; creating a being with so much feeling, and emotion, thrown into a nonsensical world and left to try to make sense of everything thrown there way. This is a quote which shall stay with me for some time:
"Adults are a mess of sadness and phobias," Clementine.
I feel that this film could greatly have benefited from being a short. It is a concept film, that should have been pondered more, been cut with more precision, and sucker punched the audience with it's a beauty. Instead we have a feature length film that whilst it retains its beautiful qualities, they only come in pieces, and not as a whole unit. This may be intentional, as the fragmented mind of our protagonist unearths, maybe this disjointed editing, and prolonged length is symbolic – I feel still, this film could have been so much more. Some of the set pieces are simply beautiful; the screenplay is, well, simply Kaufman – genius. The acting is SUBLIME. Kate Winslet simply blows the mind – not that I expected a bad performance. Her portrayal of a girl that will never fully commit herself, someone you can never truly know is inch perfect. You genuinely feel you never actually understand her character or what she wants, almost to the point of despair. Many a times in my life have I met people similar to this, and it is an identical melancholy feeling inside – it makes you question if you ever truly know a person, makes you feel useless.
I fear I may be spoiling too much, too soon. A magnificent idea , executed well, but still – it could have been so, so much more.