Be careful with what you ask for...

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2005)

What if your girl (by some kind of technical advances) would erase you from her mind? What if you (in revenge) would do the same? This is the starting point for a crazy story made by french director Michekl Condry and co-written with by Charlie Kaufman (they had previously worked together in that disaster called "Human Nature"). As in most o Kaufman's scripts you can't figure out if it is such a complex and perfect engine or only some pages stapled at random. Anyway, this time he made it! The moral is quite clear: nobody's perfect, nor even the love of your life. Her/his defects are his/her virtues as well; and if you kill your couple in your head you're killing yourself too. When relationships get so intense then your couple is part of you and you're part of your couple.
Kaufman and Gondry make us quickly identify with the main character as his memories are being erased (and with them his own world, his present and his future). They force us to fall in love with the girlfriend, played by the so inspired (and beautiful) Kate Winslet; they let us understand why that man is in love with that woman, how does it hurt to lose her, and how impossible is to try to replace your soul-mate. Jim Carrey, the long-suffering boyfriend, plays his most sober and austere character, it seems like it is a part specially written for him (though it is a dramatic character, he needs to resort to that hysterical clown inside him in a few sequences). Guest-starrings are not that bad , but they're nothing but filling (Hollywood stars-filling: Dunst, Wood...).
So "Eternal Sunshine..." is quite confusing, the sense of narration is completely lost here (as in most of Kaufman's works). But that's why it is so amusing. Because of its nonsense, because of the absurd of it all: the laughing, the tenderness, the tears... No one will be indifferent about this movie: some will disconnect after 5 minutes, and some will ask for more and more, even though they now exactly how the story is gonna end. A little jewel from latest (almost)independant American cinema.
PD: Three hurrays for Spanish movies titles translators. They called this movie "Forget About Me"... That's it boys! In your face! (God, do they REALLY get paid for doing that?) *My rate: 7.5/10