Why didn't I watch this movie sooner?

Rating: 10/10 (8 September 2004)

I put off watching this movie for a long time... never really seemed like something I'd be interested in. A few weeks ago I downloaded the movie, burned it last night and threw it in my player to check the results. Needless to say, after hitting play, I never hit stop...
Going into this movie, I had no expectations -- not even a clue as to what the movie was about. From what I remembered, the commercials made it seem like Jim Carrey's character got brain damage and forgot everything, only to see the world in a new light. Turns out the movie is nothing like that at all.
I can describe the "Eternal Sunshine" experience in one phrase: painfully magical. For anyone that has ever been in a relationship with someone that truly meant something to them, I have to believe it would affect them in a similar way. At the same time, one with no experience in such matters may walk away from the movie thinking "what was the point of that?" Therein lies the reason why this picture is not in the top 20 of all-time.
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet put in perfect performances as the main characters. Dialogue is well-scripted and beautifully delivered. Funny moments are intertwined with underlying notions of love, fear, and happiness to create situations where you don't know whether to laugh or cry -- or both. You walk away from the movie reevaluating experiences in your own life... wondering what memories you'd really sacrifice -- and whether anything is so bad that you'd give it all up.
Clementine: I wish you'd stayed.
Joel: I wish I'd stayed, too. NOW I wish I'd stayed. I wish I'd done a lot of things. I wish I'd... I wish I'd stayed... I do.
10 / 10 -- I'm off to buy it tonight, and watch it again.