I hated it. Boring and repetitive

Rating: 3/10 (7 November 2017)

The reverse of the classic Philip K. Dick story "We can remember it for you wholesale" (aka "Total Recall"). Three people, Joel, Clementine, and Mary, are interconnected by the fact that they have all attempted to have painful memories completely erased from their conscious and unconscious memory. The technique is only partially successful. At the end, all 3 remember fragments of their thoughts. The initial device looks just like a beauty parlor hair dryer a la "The Stepford Wives". Joel wants to forget Clementine, so he has the procedure performed in the doctor's office and then completed at home. Something goes terribly wrong and he almost can't be "snapped out of it" as he remains unconscious for a dangerously long period of time. Thus, the viewer is forced to relive the same imperfectly-erased memories many times and for me this became quite tedious and boring. As expected, Joel and Clementine both tried to erase each other, (she first) and Mary almost forgets her love affair with the married doctor where she is office manager. Good effects, as fences and buildings all dissolve metaphorically as the memories shift and change. Almost like the movie "Brainstorm" but not in a toxic or shocking way. I didn't like it at all and I don't care how wonderful and original everyone else thinks this movie is. The only good thing about it is that in spite of all the odds against it, Joel and Clementine finally reconnect and try to start again, possibly indicating that they really belong together after all. It's not worth 108 minutes of my time for just that revelation. As usual, Jim Carrey gives a good off-beat performance but Kate Winslet is wasted as his love interest. A minor "sexy" scene as Mary and the technician "get it on" at Joel's home and accidentally leave him "plugged in" too long, like a bag of burning microwave popcorn!