Interesting but very strange

Rating: 6/10 (17 December 2004)

** HERE BE SPOILERS (AND I MEAN IT!) **
(You might want to have these memories erased). Joel (Carrey) wakes up, but instead of going to his job, he goes to a cold beach in Montauk. There he meets the girl Clementine (Winslet) and they soon hit it off. It actually seems that they know each other from before. Well, they do. We get to see a previous relationship between them evolve and disintegrate, leading up to both of them having their memories of the other erased by Lacuna Inc. Enter subplot. The people working at Lacuna are very intimately involved. Secretary Mary (Dunst) has something going with technician Stan (Ruffalo). Co-worker Patrick (Wood) actually uses material handed in by Joel to woo Clementine. However, during Joel's procedure to have his memories of Clementine erased, he is having second thoughts and start to fight the procedure. He desperately wants to keep at least one memory of Clementine. But how to do? A hunt in his own mind, through all his memories ensues. And both inside and outside his mind, secrets wait to explode.
This is an extremely strange movie, that needs you to actually be alert to have hope to keep track. (One tip is to keep track of Clementine's hair). I think the journey through Joel's mind was interesting, as it showed, from a unique perspective, situations were he didn't really know why he reacted the way he did. Situations were would have wanted to act differently. Situations we have all experienced. Carrey and Winslet have a nice relationship going between their characters and the entire cast is good I think. However, sometimes it was hard to really pay attention to the story while I were trying to coop with the strangeness (I was a little tired when I saw it, maybe that wasn't the best start). And the strangeness was all over. Now, don't equal strange with bad, because that is not at all how it is. But a lot of things were a little strange, or had an strange effect. All from music and sound to the plot, special effects and cuts. All in all, a very unique movie, an experience.
6/10