Shifting Inner Realities and True Love

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2009)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Shifting Inner Realities and True Love
The simple brilliance of the basic idea (erasing selective parts of the mind) and applying it in a way that feeds into pure romance (erasing only memories of a relationship with someone) makes for a movie that still could go all wrong. But it doesn't. Jim Carrey as Joel, the main thread we have through this misadventure, is at his best--comic without being plain old stupid, and feeding some mild angst.
There are moments when you wonder, is this necessary, is this really that funny (like the dancing on the bed) and I think it depends on who you are. But most of the time you are waiting for the next improbable twist, which you swallow wholeheartedly because it's just so fun, and so enchanting. There is a confusing charm from start to finish, and you can't expect to get every detail or nuance, not the first time anyway. Some clues--watch the changing hair color of Joel's sometimes girlfriend Clementine (played with steady conviction by Kate Winslet), watch the weather. And be patient. Some bits get explained after the fact.
The other engaging aspect to the movie is its visual trickery, tightly conceived so that when reality breaks down the movie doesn't just devolve into chaos, or into special effects. We feel as though we are shifting with the main characters from one reality to another. Brilliant, and beautiful, too.
Seeing the movie a second time had a strange unpeeling effect that at first was welcome, because I understood it far better. In fact, I understood it, period, which I can't say about some other mind-shifting movies like Memento. And the problem grows that part of the movie's enjoyment is how it puzzles you. There are lots of movies that don't work as well on second viewing because they have lost their surprise, and this is a little like that, but it might take two looks to get to the saturation point. The happy ending lacks some sparkle now--it seems too packaged. A totally amazing twist, which should be doable these days, would be to make a movie that constructs itself from the DVD in slightly different ways every time you see it. Then your own reality would jostle around in spooky ways.
As it is, it's still so weirdly curious and detached and romantic in steady spurts throughout, it's a special experience, one of those movies to talk about. In the end, pure Love beats it all.