One of the most romantic films of all time

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2008)

Joel is a social inept who is unsuccessful in relationships, watching his life go by and unable to really do anything about it and being powerless to change anything, until a trip to Montauk changes everything, he meets Clementine, a scatty spontaneous and bizarre woman, and everything changes. He clicks with her on the train and you instantly feel a connection between them, you enjoy watching them, and you remember yourself the joy of these moments and how good they feel, the warmth, the affection, the sensation of a touch as you brush aside a hair, savouring a look, the delicious image of a loved one sleeping, things that stay with you, that will never leave you, no matter what happens.
Skip forward to the break-up and Joel distraught in the car in pieces as it has all gone wrong for him, but at least he and Clementine have their memories, right? Wrong! In Charlie Kauffman's perfectly scripted masterpiece, people who want rid of painful memories can have them removed at Lacuna Inc, a memory erasing centre where anything can be removed, at a price. As Joel decides to exact a kind of subconscious revenge on Clementine he decides to have her removed, and as he visits the end of the relationship, we can see why. It was dead and going nowhere, so what's the point of keeping it? However as he goes back and experiences some amazing moments with Clementine we realise and remember with him, the best moments in a relationship and what they are about and how losing those is something we shouldn't do, because they are as important, in fact more so, than the bad moments that end it.
In this film it explores this theme with a flawless execution, the pain he feels is not because his relationship is over, it is that the best of it cannot be added to, and how we all ultimately lose sight of what is important in relationships in today's quick fix society. That spark that starts them when they are new may die, but some of the things that replace them are more beautiful and more worthwhile. As Joel tries to fight off the memory erasers he hides in different memories and we see bizarre mixtures of different stages of his life, and the film becomes a dazzling series of clever twists and turns as he fights them in his sleep, while outside his head other battles are ongoing with the very people that are trying to erase him.
The script on this film is just a joy to comprehend and the more I think about it the more in awe I am of Kauffman's handling of the subject matter. Carrey is brilliant as the put upon Joel and we don't regard him as a clown, but as a genuine, gentle, sympathetic soul who is captivated by the effervescent Clementine, played with energy and verve by the usually good value Winslet. The supporting cast headed by Kirsten Dunst, the brilliant Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood are all great, but this is Carrey and Winslet's film and they shine ferociously in this joy to behold.
Largely overlooked by the Oscars and splitting reviewers like a lumberjack splitting redwoods from their roots, this is gonna become one of those films that will either dazzle of drizzle, depending on who you are and where you come from, but for me, this is well worthy of its place in the top 250 and will hold strong as long as people see movies.