Trippy, strange, but also very emotional and moving. This movie is perfectly balanced.

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2009)

Jim Carrey is known for his roles in screwball comedies, and it seemed as there was no way to get an actual clean break off from his normal goofy persona. It may have seemed that way, but this movie proves otherwise. What we have here is a mature film, with some funny moments, but instead of a stupid Carrey performance, we have a deep and moving performance, in a very strange and original, but nonetheless deep and moving picture.
Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) leads a fairly mundane and boring life until he meets Clementine (Kate Winslet). He and Clementine click right away despite their contrasting personalities. One day when visiting her and work, Joel finds she has no recollection of him, and discovers she had her memory erased of him from a clinic. Because of his depression over her, Joel decides to do the same thing. During the procedure, Joel realizes he wants to remember her, and must take her to places in his memory where she can't be erased. Meanwhile, during the operation at Joel's apartment, we meet the doctors working on him. Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) are the somewhat incompetent doctors, as they care about their own needs more than that of Joel, and Stan ends up inviting over Mary (Kirstin Dunst), the receptionist at their place of work. Joel jumps from memory to memory causing confusion by the younger doctors and a call to older Doctor Howard (Tom WIlkinsin) and secrets about the people performing the operations come out.
For a movie that takes place mainly inside one guy's mind, this manages to be a very emotional film. Joel is a really likable character, and his progression throughout the film and in his memories is quite interesting. Kate Winslet plays a good opposite to Joel's introverted ways, and her performance as Clementine, and as merely a memory concocted by Joel is also excellent. All the performances are great, and what makes them great, is despite some stupidity even in the doctors, they're still portrayed as people, not just morons. They are just as deep as our protagonist, and have just as much baggage on the brain.
The direction is phenomenal. The jump from memory to memory and the erasing of the memories gives us a huge feel of what Joel has gone through and takes us through all kind of interesting settings. In contrast, we have Joel's apartment where our co-plot is going on with the doctors, and the apartment in so many scenes gives a feeling of intimacy with the surroundings. The memories Joel has are so well done and even eerie at times, but also very sad and lonely when need be. Director Michael Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman really molded some brilliant contrasts, and some lovely and thought provoking characters.
Overall, this really is destined to be a classic, or if not that a highly regarded cult classic. It's an emotional, beautiful movie, with Jim Carrey showing that he deserves more roles in dramas after pulling this off. Nothing's ever been quite like this, and chances are, nothing will again.
My rating: **** out of ****. 108 mins. R for language and sexuality.