Brilliant!

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2004)

Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry have created a seamless film. Kaufman's writing, which is not as cerebral or self-consciously clever as in "Being John Malkovich" or "Adaptation," brilliantly explores relationships and memory, and Michel Gondry's direction is flawless in its execution of Kaufman's ideas. While the film is not as heady or strange as Kaufman's previous two ventures, it is infinitely more heartfelt and genuine.
This is, of course, helped greatly by the excellent performances of all the actors and actresses involved. Jim Carrey proves his worth as a serious actor, and Kate Winslet's HUGE performance as Clementine carries a lot of the film. While we never learn many personal details about either main character, by the end you have come to know them and care about them, which is an achievement for a writer like Kaufman who tends to make his characters alienatingly odd.
Still, the real star here is Michel Gondry. He's proved with his short films and music videos (Available on an excellent DVD from Palm films) that memory and the psyche are some of the realms with which he is the most comfortable, and his portrayal of Joel's journey through his subconscious is absolutely mesmerizing. He manages to pull off this remarkable feat without overuse of flashy effects, and mostly through simply camera trickery, and manages to downplay the main technological gimmick, which could have come off as cheezy science- fiction.
Kudos to Gondry and Kaufman for a brilliant achievement of a film!