2 stellar performances lost in the script

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2016)

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" may be a contender for most pretentious movie title of all time, but at least the film is not as bad. Actually, it has a couple good moments and Kate Winslet delivers a serious contender for career-best performance. Nice to see her nominated for an Oscar here. Jim Carrey is not on the same level, but still very good and it would have been nice to see him nominated too. For anything. What a joke the Academy has still not nominated him for his many great performances. Unfortunately, this is also almost all positive I can say. The film was directed by Michel Gondry and also written by him together with Charlie Kaufman. The duo won an Oscar for the film's script. I certainly prefer Gondry's "L'écume des jours".
In my opinion, the writing is really bad at times. Scenes like Carrey's character being his 5-year-old self, but still looking his normal age are so absurd that not even a comedic genius like Carrey can make it work. And the story away from the two protagonists is also pretty bad. I usually like Ruffalo, but his story with Kirsten Dunst's character (completely forgettable) added nothing to the film. Also that an apparently serious medical practice leaves a patient at an assistant doctor's home, a guy who is constantly stoned and drinking, is really disappointing.
There was so much potential here. Carrey and Winslet have amazing chemistry and a better script could have turned this into a truly magical film that would have been so so memorable in terms of romance and potential tragedy. But it was all lost in the script of this 105-minute work here. Truly sad to see. The filmmakers tried to be too smart for their own good with constantly changing realities, locations and characters. Luckily, the 2 lead actors save it somehow from being an entirely unwatchable film. As a whole, I recommend it, but not with a lot of enthusiasm.