Unlikely romance and dull sub plots meet beautiful visual design

Rating: 7/10 (23 January 2006)

Eternal Sunshine is an example of a brilliant idea for a short film drawn out into a full length feature it cannot handle. The premise of a man erasing his memories of a failed romance only to realise within his memory the love he still feels is certainly an original and inspired one, but it deserved better treatment.
Fantastically conceived visually, with characters' faces disappearing and objects simply erasing themselves, the film suffers from Carrey being simply too whiny and unlikable a lead in this (compared to his considerably more lovable and justifiably upset Truman in the Truman Show). His relationship with Winslet's Clementine is simply unbelievable. I has been said that opposites attract but these two are simply too opposite. There romance seems to boil down to little more than an intense sexual attraction, and little more, although Carrey gets across in his voice that he is in love, the script seems to argue otherwise.
The film is dragged about by some excruciatingly dull subplots starring talented but misused actors (Wood, Dunst), which seem only in place to make the ending come about as it does (Wood's role for example is extremely unsettling and manipulative, but neither he nor the script pull it off).
The music is as times terrific and at others dull and confusing in its use.
But Carrey and the fantastic art direction manage to make this a very entertaining film, that alas wears thin with repeated viewing.
Certainly worth a peek for those interested in modern pseudo-philosophical cinema.