Love, Forgetting... Fate, Chance

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2008)

Joel Barrish has a love-hate relationship with his girlfriend Clementine. But after things fall apart, the relationship goes from strained to bizarre: she has visited Lacuna, a service that deletes or erases people from your memory. Everything that was Joel in her mind is now gone. Joel, not wanting to be heartbroken alone, follows suit and undergoes the same treatment -- only to discover halfway through that even the worst memories come with good ones and both are important.
Not surprisingly, this film is beautiful and sad. Why am I not surprised? Because it comes from Charlie Kaufman, who also brought us "Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich". Kaufman has the power to make the strange familiar and is something of a kingmaker in the world of acting -- "Adaptation" may well be Nicolas Cage's best work, and this may well be Jim Carrey's. All those who doubted he could play serious roles had been proved otherwise. Kate Winslet also compliments him well and offers a nice departure for those used to her from "Titanic".
If one wants, they can get into some great existential questions with this film: are bad memories important? Is it wrong to remove them? Are we destined to meet and love certain people or certain types of people? There's some wonder about the morality of removing another person from your memory and the biggest question of whether or not we need those memories to shape us. This film quotes Nietzsche and Alexander Pope -- but not one of Nietzsche's more well-known quotations: that which doesn't kill us only serves to make us stronger. Isn't that what pain is? A catalyst for growth? The supporting cast is excellent. Mark Ruffalo has a breakout performance (though not quite on par with "Zodiac") and Kirsten Dunst is pretty lovable as Mary (though still not as lovable as Maggie Gyllenhaal). Elijah Wood also appears, which is good or bad depending on your love for Elijah Wood, I imagine.
You will have to ignore certain continuity questions (if you see someone every day for two years, what becomes of those two years with them removed) but that really isn't the point of the film anyhow. It's about fate and chance (see also "No Country For Old Men"). And it's amazing, easily deserving the accolades hoisted upon it. If you're inexperienced, make this a top priority in your life.