OK film

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2008)

Interestingly, as the film scripts of Charlie Kaufman have gotten praised through the roof over the last several years, with comparisons ranging to Herman Mankiewicz, Robert Towne, Paul Schrader, and Paddy Chayefsky- at least in terms of recognizability, most writers I have known have been far less impressed with his solipsistically obsessed screenplays than the general public.
I think that is because that any reader of fiction or poetry in the last 40 or so years has been so inundated with puerile post-modernism that self-referential tautologies fail to impress. This is the fourth CK-scripted film I've seen and easily the best film was that he adapted from an outside source- the film of Chuck Barris's autobiography Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind- directed by George Clooney. That's because, given the source, CK was forced to stay on track and not veer back into his own ego like the Titanic to the- You get what I mean. His first filmed screenplay, Being John Malkovich, was a cute humorous fable- not too deep, nor too troubling. His second scripted film, Adaptation, was merely a banal recapitulation of themes laid out in the first film, yet with the added baggage of destroying a potentially interesting film with a last third larded with the neuroses of writer's block raised to epopee. No, not really, but the attempt was embarrassing. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind explores similar areas of memory and mind far better, although the film has some notable flaws. I grade it as a 75 out of 100- good, but nowhere near the great rankings many critics bestowed upon it.However, this is still the best CK film based on his original script. The problem is that his 'original' scripts are all mere slight tangents on the same tired theme. Too bad, because a better, more original screenwriter would have laid the template for a truly great film, not just a muddling repeat viewing of a maculate mind unlighted.