Another Take On Love

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2012)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a romantic science fiction film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories, scripted by Charlie Kaufman and directed by the French director, Michel Gondry. The film uses elements of science fiction, psychological thriller, and nonlinear narration to explore the nature of memory and romantic love.Kaufman and Gondry worked on the story with Pierre Bismuth, a French performance artist. The film stars an ensemble cast starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Jane Adams, and David Cross.The second feature from Gondry finds the filmmaker re-teaming with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for this off-the-wall romantic comedy.
Emotionally withdrawn Joel Barish and unhinged free spirit Clementine Kruczynski strike up a relationship on a Long Island Rail Road train from Montauk, New York. They are drawn to each other on account of their radically different personalities.Although they apparently do not realize it at the time, Joel and Clementine are in fact former lovers, now separated after having spent two years together. After a nasty fight, Clementine hired the New York City firm Lacuna, Inc. to erase all her memories of their relationship. Upon discovering this, Joel is devastated and decides to undergo the procedure himself, a process that takes place while he sleeps.
Much of the film takes place in Joel's mind. As his memories are erased, Joel finds himself revisiting them in reverse. Upon seeing happier times of his relationship with Clementine from earlier in their relationship, he struggles to preserve at least some memory of her and his love for her. Despite his efforts, the memories are slowly erased, with the last memory of Clementine telling him: "Meet me in Montauk".
In separate but related story arcs occurring during Joel's memory erasure, the employees of Lacuna are revealed to be more than peripheral characters. Patrick, one of the Lacuna technicians performing the erasure, is dating Clementine while viewing Joel's memories, and copying Joel's moves to seduce her. Mary, the Lacuna receptionist, turns out to have had an affair with Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, the married doctor who heads the company—a relationship which she agreed to have erased from her memory when it was discovered by his wife. Once Mary learns this, she quits her job and steals the company's records, then sends them out to all clients of the company.
Joel and Clementine come upon their Lacuna records shortly after re- encountering each other on the train. They react with shock and bewilderment, given that they have no clear memory of having known each other, let alone having had a relationship and having had their memories erased. Joel tries to convince Clementine that they can start over, but Clementine states that it could end the same way. Joel accepts this, and they decide to attempt a relationship anyway, starting their life together anew.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a wonderful, often beautiful, and melancholy character study of romance, humanity, and the mind with wonderful acting, incredible surrealism and a funny and heart-wrenching story.It's the kind of film that could mean more to people after they've left the theater and thought about it awhile for it is the perfect movie about love's inevitable imperfections. Aside from that,it entertains for the most part and gives us a set of marvelous performances from this outstanding cast, even if it doesn't quite reach the near-genius of Kaufman's other writings.Indeed,it provides another take on love that would definitely bring out all the weirdness of the premise, sometimes eliciting disbelieving laughter, sometimes taking us to odd, chilly places.