Ingenious, bold and eccentric, guaranteed to hit your emotional core

Rating: 10/10 (7 April 2008)

The teaming of whimsical director Michel Gondry and mind-bending writer Charlie Kaufman was bound to end with the creation of a film that refused to stick to normal cinematic boundaries, but still compelled the viewer. However, Eternal Sunshine went beyond levels of wacky beauty and intellectualism that even the most optimistic viewer would've hoped for.
Starring Jim Carrey as Joel Barish, who wants to remove his impulsive ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) from his memory after she did the same to him, it focuses mainly on the importance of memory to humanity, and how beneficial it is to keep even the worst memories. The film is composed mainly of a journey through the psyche of Joel Barish, as he watches as the team of erasers, Lacuna Inc, destroy all his memories However, the main reason for watching is the beautiful, quirky and tumultuous relationship between Carey and Winslet. The chemistry between the two is unmistakable, with Carey leaving his ordinary comedy role to play a timid neurotic who is too nervous to appreciate the joys of life, and Winslet playing up her role as the extrovert girlfriend that awakens Joel's senses.
The two main characters play on every emotion that the audience can bear; doing the utmost to ensure that there is no minute of film in which our humanity is not being played like a violin. Each insult they hurl during their relationship hits us hard, each tender moment is felt as deeply. Gondry and Kaufman set up scenes of eccentric beauty throughout, from Carey and Winslet lying on their backs on a frozen lake, to a comically sweet "baby Joel" scene. And throughout this, our beliefs on what memory is, and what it does, is poked and prodded, examined whilst we watch and wonder ourselves what our own memory would be like.
Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood provide fine support as Lacuna staff with their own intriguing secrets. Wood excels especially, a side plot involving his character falling for Clementine and using Joel's identity to try to win her heart is a fine separation from the main plot, whilst still adding more layers to Clementine as a character.
The universe that is created here, where people can be free to run around their own minds, experiencing their lives all over again, is one that simply should not be compressed into under two hours. The audience wants more when the film finishes, more of the elegantly idiosyncratic touches that are deftly moulded into the memory scenes for one, but also more of Joel and Clementine, what is next for them in their relationship. For without their engaging love story at the centre of proceedings, this film will be no more than a series of fanciful but emotionless tricks. With Carey and Winslet pitch-perfectly playing this ambiguous relationship, emotion is one thing that this film certainly isn't lacking.