Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2005)

The first time I saw it I was pretty confused, but seeing it again I can almost understand the plot. Basically Joel Barish (another more serious role for BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Jim Carrey) wakes up with no memory of the night before, and his car scratched. He skips work and heads to the shore, and as he travels he keeps seeing Clementine (no jokes, e.g. Huckleberry Hound's "Oh My Darling, Clementine") Kruczynski (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Kate Winslet). First she is asking if they know each other, then they lie together on the thick ice of a lake, and then all of the sudden it cuts to Joel upset because of their split. He finds out that she went to Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) and had all memories of Joel erased from her memory, so he follows her. As his memories are erased, his mind rediscovers past passions, and he almost tries to escape the procedure. Meanwhile, out of Joel's mind, Stan (Mark Ruffalo) is carrying out the erasure, while his partner Patrick (Elijah Wood, after the last Lord of the Rings) is trying to create a relationship with the now Joel-memory erased Clementine using Joel's stuff. Stan is also trying to continue his relationship with co-worker Mary (Kirsten Dunst), but she finds out that she had memories of a passion with Dr. Howard erased. When the erasure is complete, you find out the segments at the beginning was after the procedure, so Joel and Clementine pretty much start their passion all over again, even after Mary gives them back their opinion chats of each other back. Also starring Jane Adams as Carrie and Scary Movie 2's David Cross as Rob. It might be complicated inside Carrey's mind, but it is a very inventive story about how memories can construct our minds. It won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, it won the BAFTAs for Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay, and it was nominated for Best Film and the David Lean Award for Direction for music video director Michel Gondry, and it was nominated the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay. Very good!