Carrey comes of age - may Hollywood follow!

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2004)

Ever since I first saw Jim Carrey in the TV-show In Living Color, I knew there was something special about him. It was hardly a surprise to see his movie career take off. What was surprising, were the kind of roles he picked. His early success relied heavily on his rubber face, and it would have been all too easy to stick to movies like Ace, Dumb & Dumber and The Mask. Fortunately for us, he didn't.
In The Cable Guy and The Truman Show, he showed that he had no fear to take on more serious, darker material. Those movies were still covered in thick layers of Hollywood plastic, but seemed to hold a promise of better things to come. Even more telling, at least to me, was Carrey's TV-appearance with Ruby Wax. He was more honest, vulnerable and... real than any other guest before him.
Still, nothing prepared me for his role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Here, Jim Carrey fulfils his early promise in full. His portrayal of an insecure guy in search of some happiness hits home. This is a breathtaking performance, because we do not see Carrey acting, but just being himself - or so he makes us believe.
But let us not focus on just one actor, wonderful (and promising) as his role may be. All the actors in this movie are great. Winslet is simply wonderful. Dunst, Wood, Ruffalo... all are surprisingly good. Even Wilkinson, one of those lesser known actors that you like to tell your friends about, is at the top of his game here.
However, this is much more than an actors' movie. Writer Kaufman, co-writer/director Gondry and editor Óskarsdóttir have together produced a chef d'oeuvre that shows a way out for an industry, stuck in a loop of formulaic, CGI- and special effects-driven fast food. Let us hope that others will pick up the vibe, and not turn this into a new formula, but use it as an inspiration to create more original works of art.