A Lovely Roller Coaster Ride Through the Tricks Memory Plays

Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2004)

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is the best adaptation of a story that Philip K. Dick never wrote.
There's glimpses of movies actually inspired by Dick, like "Paycheck"and "Total Recall," as well as elements from "The Neverending Story" with its encroaching "nothing" to "Groundhog Day" to Pinter's "Betrayal" or "Memento,"and the various permutations of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan."

But it's altogether completely original in the inventive writing imagination of Charlie Kaufman and visualization by video-maker Michel Gondry, known more up to now for illustrating Bjork's odd songs.
Yes, it takes awhile to quite figure out what's going on until you can sort out what's contemporaneously happening before your eyes, what's dream, what's memory, what's fantasy, and what's flashback -- within a one-person "Rashomon" roller coaster ride we literally see the tricks memory plays that allow people to fall in love with people who bring out something new in them, and then try to stay in or out of love with them.

Almost every actor plays against their usual type -- here Kate Winslet is the kooky, spontaneous one, even more so than in "Sense and Sensibility" and "Hideous Kinky" (tracking her hair colors helps you track the film's trajectory and her British accent only slips through twice), Jim Carrey is the serious, shy introvert (though his comedic talents fit nicely as the character incongruously explores the hidden recesses of his subconscious), and Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood are nerds living vicariously, though Kirsten Dunst is a similar nymphet as in "Bring It On."
Unlike most of the films this borrows from, "Eternal Sunshine" has a humanistic heart -- yes, love hurts, but we wouldn't trade a moment of the pain for the pleasure it brings. And well-worth seeing again to try and remember it better.
Lovely score by Jon Brion that helps ratchet up the tensions without overwhelming them.
While the LIRR is used nicely as a setting and metaphor, I'm not 100% convinced that the suburban scenes were filmed in what they claim is Rockville Centre, LI, as it looked more like parts of NYC to me -- which would be a nice change for Queens or wherever standing in for another locale.