Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ( 2004 ) R | When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a procedure to have each other erased from their memories. But it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence.

‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’: Barry Sonnenfeld Was Booted Off the Movie, and Now He’s Saved the Franchise 12 January 2017 8:45 AM, -08:00 | Indiewire Television a list of 47 titles created 20 Feb 2012 a list of 30 titles created 16 Apr 2012 a list of 45 titles created 31 Aug 2015 a list of 48 titles created 23 Nov 2015 a list of 37 titles created 9 months ago Title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 8.3/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 64 wins & 103 nominations. See more awards » Videos An insurance salesman/adjuster discovers his entire life is actually a television show. Director: Peter Weir The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.

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Director: Milos Forman In a future British tyranny, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow it with the help of a young woman. Director: James McTeigue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X In future Britain, Alex DeLarge, a charismatic and psycopath delinquent, who likes to practice crimes and ultra-violence with his gang, is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem - but not all goes according to plan. Director: Stanley Kubrick After John Nash , a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish. Director: Ron Howard Edit Storyline A man, Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend Clementine underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realizes that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake. Written by anonymous Our memories makes us who we are. You can't change the past.

See more » Genres: Rated R for language, some drug and sexual content | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 19 March 2004 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Eterno resplandor de una mente sin recuerdos See more » Filming Locations: $8,175,198 (USA) (19 March 2004) Gross: Seth Rogen auditioned for the role of Patrick. See more » Goofs When Clementine goes to Joel's building foyer, and meets Joel's neighbor (the "McRomance" guy), the actor waiting to walk into the scene is reflected in the door. See more » Quotes [first lines] Joel : [voice over] random thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap. See more » Crazy Credits The text in the opening credits appears quickly and then slowly withers away, like a memory.

See more » Connections Perfect - a movie that puts 99% of all contemporary movies to shame 2 July 2004 | by Superunknovvn (Austria, Vienna) – See all my reviews There's only one way to describe "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind": perfect. It's been one week since I saw the movie and I still cannot stop thinking about it. Was the ending happy or sad? I cannot tell, but it's deeply touching. Charlie Kaufman is incredible. How does he come up with all these original, flawless scripts? Finally there's someone who uses the possibilities of cinema to the fullest. I love the way Kaufman shows the fate of individuals and derives universally true rules from it. The content of his story is always highly philosophical without ever being smart alec. Some say "Eternal Sunshine..." was over-directed. I disagree. Having read the script, I know that Gondry deserves lots of credit for bringing this beautiful story to life. Sure, there are five creepy images per minute, but have you ever seen such an original, weird picture?

Mind you, I'm not saying that lots of effects automatically make for a good direction, but in this case it really helped to underline the story, not distracting from it. Jim Carrey... wow! I've always liked him as the hilarious Comedian he is, but I never thought that his performances in "The Truman Show" and "Man On The Moon" were that much of a departure from his funny-man side. As Joel, however, he is a completely different person. It's like Jim Carrey had a serious twin brother. Unbelievable. I bow to this performance! Give this man more chances to show his acting abilities, I say! Finally I have to mention Beck's cover of "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime", which fits perfectly into the movie and won't leave my CD-Player for the next months. A movie like "Eternal Sunshine..." really shows how much time and money Hollywood wastes on producing crap like "Bad Boys" or "The Fast & The Furious", and its box office result demonstrates how little people care about quality in movies. Personally, I have found my first contender for best motion picture of the year.

I need to see the movie again, because I have a feeling that this one gets even better with each viewing. I can't wait until it's released on DVD. I feel the need to say more, but I can't put my feelings into (English) words. All I can say is: GO SEE THIS MOVIE! You won't regret it. 181 of 215 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Amazon.com: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Gerry Robert Byrne, Elijah Wood: Amazon Digital Services LLC By Donald H. on April 22, 2016 Format: Amazon Video Verified Purchase Clementine Kruczynski, aka Tangerine (Kate Winslet) is fearless and uninhibited when it comes to latching on to her new beau, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey). She acts like someone who is on the rebound from a sudden, broken relationship. The way they coalesce (hook up) is almost to good to be true. Joel sees her as exciting, flashy, and a lot of fun, a riot.

She is a risk taker and an adrenaline driven thrill seeker that takes Joel on a wild ride and out of his comfort zone. She proposed marriage and after a few days exclaimed she wanted to have a baby. Joel, nonplussed, is more responsible and reasonable than the impulsive, high-maintenance Clementine, and he feels he is in over his head. He goes to a hypnotherapist to expunge her from his memory, so he can move on and get his life back. At some point, he has second thoughts about erasing and removing their blooming friendship from his memory. There's a tug-of-war between the doctor who is contractually bound to carry out the procedure and Joel, who wants to preserve and hold on to this meaningful relationship. It becomes a race against the clock between these two opposing forces - the doctor trying to clear and create a tabula rasa (spotless mind) and Joel trying to keep fond memories of Clementine ever present. The use of a EEG - CAT scan to measure and record the process of selective memory eradication added an element of realism to this sci-fi comedy. What if this neurological capability was within the realm of medical science!

If I could digress into a particular scene, they are laying supine on frozen Lake Montauk in N.Y. Looking up at the night sky, he pointed out the sword and belt of Orion, which he didn't know by name, and told her it was "Osidius the Emphatic" constellation. Huh? He made that up off the top of his head to impress her. Read more › Jim Carrey on 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' Jim Carrey stars in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," directed by Michel Gondry. Focus Features Updated August 30, 2016. Would you erase a bad relationship from your memory if you had the chance? If all it took was one night spent hooked up to a computer to forever forget a lost love, would you go for it? From the warped imagination of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation") comes "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a film that proposes the ability to do that is but a doctor's office visit away.

While the script for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" was still in draft form, copies of it began to circulate around Hollywood. One of the actors who immediately expressed interest in the film was Jim Carrey . Fortunately for all concerned, director Michel Gondry felt as much pleasure over Carrey's desire to be in the movie, as Carrey did in taking on the role of Joel. continue reading below our video 5 Urban Myths That Rule the Ages Gondry felt Carrey would bring a lot to the character and now that the film is about to be released, producer Anthony Bregman believes audiences will be amazed at Carrey's performance. "I think that people are going to be very surprised to see the character that Jim is portraying here. Joel is very unlike any of the characters that Jim has played before. In many scenes, he is almost unrecognizable from the Jim Carrey that we all know," says Bregman. JIM CARREY ('Joel'): How did you come about getting this role? Honestly, the script came to me. Someone gave me the script and I read it and I thought it was incredible.

I couldn't believe that I was being offered it, so I was just very, very happy. It was one of those things. I read that script and I kind of had this guilty feeling like, How can I get this one and Truman Show?' Two really interesting, original movies. So, I was really happy about it. This is such an interesting romantic movie. Was there anything that was an inspiration for you as far as films of the past or favorite romantic scenes? Just in my life, you know? Movies are great, but the real romance happens right here (tapping his nose) somewhere - real close-up. I don't know. This part, I really couldn't have done it if I hadn't been through a lot one way or another. Either you're the one erasing or you're the one being erased, so it's not a pleasant feeling! The idea of erasing somebody from your memories is extremely appealing. Of course! In the moment, especially, when you're going through something. You think, I don't need this! I don't need to live in a fight or flight response!

Why can't I just let this go? But, in retrospect it always seems to work out that you can look back on something that was a disaster and find some gems in there. This movie is about the tension between wanting to erase bad things that have happened to us and holding on to them because of our willingness to fail again. Do you think nowadays theres more of a tendency to want to erase things? I think quick fixes are big, for sure. We're all erasing stuff every morning when we go to Starbucks. You know what I mean? We're like (mimes drinking down coffee), Don't let it come up again! Don't let it come up again! I think we suppress, we don't completely erase. I think we would, in the moment, definitely choose that a lot of times when we're on our knees screaming at God. I don't know if I answered the question. What do we lose by erasing? I think you make the same mistakes over and over again - not that you wouldn't anyway - if you knew. I think there are beautiful moments.

These days everybody expects that fairy tale [that] you're going to be together forever with somebody and I don't really subscribe to that. I'd love that to happen if that happened, but 10 years is enough. 10 years is a good thing with somebody, I think. It's a nice thing. A lot of good love can happen in 10 years. You have wonderful chemistry with Kate Winslet in this. Whats is it like to work with her? I get excited when the people I work with scare me. She's just scary-talented and just an amazing actress...'actor,' whatever you call them these days. I get excited when I'm surrounded by people who make me better and make me stay on my game and challenge me. She's wonderful to watch - unbelievable - because you sometimes don't know what she's doing when you're in a scene with her. You look at it later and she knows what's going to come off, how it's going to look. It's beautiful.

Staring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood Oscars: 1 win, 2 Nominations AFI 100 years, 100 _____ tributes: None Runtime: 1h 48min Best Quote: "When I was a kid, I thought I was [ugly]. I can't believe I'm crying already. Sometimes I think people don't understand how lonely it is to be a kid, like you don't matter. So, I'm eight, and I have these toys, these dolls. My favorite is this ugly girl doll who I call Clementine, and I keep yelling at her, "You can't be ugly! Be pretty!" It's weird, like if I can transform her, I would magically change, too." - Clementine Kruczynski There is a clinic, Lacuna, Inc., where people go to get an unusual procedure done. This "procedure" will erase select memories from one's brain. Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and his girlfriend, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) have just broken up. Clementine, however, wants to forget Joel completely.

She wants him gone forever. And so, Clementine undergoes this "operation" that erases Joel from here memory forever. Joel, who can't stop thinking about her, learns of what she has done, and immediatly seeks out the clinic to undergo the procedure himself. However, things backfire on Joel. Once the procedure has started, it becomes apparent that Joel does not want to forget Clementine. It then becomes a race against time to save what few memories of Clementine he has left. If he can. Personal Comments Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was written by Charlie Kaufman, one known for writting weird an unsual screenplays like the Oscar nominated Being John Malkovich and Adaptation . Kaufman has most of the movie played inside Joel's brain. The basic plot of the movie revolves around Joel, trying to remember anything and everything he can about his girlfrined Clementine, before the memories are gone forever. As wild as his antics can be ala Ace Ventura: Pet Detective or Me, Myself & Irene , Jim Carrey knows when to limit his comic genius and focus on the dramatic moment.

As he did in The Truman Show , Jim plays a tragic character who is learning new things all the time and must figure out those things in order to save himself. Carrey uses subtle humor and brief glimpses of his comic genius to great results in order to bring Joel Barish to life. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the best films of the 2004. It's Ingenious and inventive and you can't help but love and feel sorry for Carrey at the same time. You might even cry. Plot: The movie really is ingenious; the plot is unique in that almost all of the story is being told from inside Joel's mind, from the point of view of Joel's memory. for most of the movie, what we see is not "reality," but the memories of Joel Barish. The film can get confusing at times but it does explain itself sooner rather than later. Visual Effects: There are some whicked visual effects in this film. Mostly, things disappear and reappear, but things like building also change shape and appearance. In once scene even, Jim and Kate "shrink" and go swimming in a kitchen sink. I loved how Kaufman had Joel instantly forget a memory.

Clementine would be there one minute and then gone the next; She and Joel would be running down a road and then she would just dissappear, as if someone had snapped their fingers and she was gone. Joel would just stand there, not knowing what had happened. Sound: The background music works well with the dramatic feel of the film, even though it is a comedy. Any and all songs fit well into the picture. Character Development: You can really see a dramtic change in the way Joel and Clementine feel about each other as the film progresses. Joel takes a dramtic change from the way you see him at the beginning of the film to the way he ends up. Atmosphere: AboutFilm.com - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind USA, 2003. Rated R. 108 minutes.

Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Jane Adams, David Cross, Thomas Jay Ryan Writers: Charlie Kaufman (screenplay & story), Michel Gondry (story), Pierre Bismuth (story) Original Music: Jon Brion Producers: Steve Golin, Anthony Bregman Director: Michel Gondry Grade: A+ Review by Carlo Cavagna he Auteur Theory of cinema posits, rather pretentiously, that only those filmmakers who imprint their personal vision on every frame of a film are worthy of the label of true artists, or auteurs. Since the director is the person most directly in control of a film, auteurs are almost always directors, with obvious examples being Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, and Martin Scorsese. Their films have a specific feel and tone that we can readily identify. The Auteur Theory does not generally allow for screenwriters (who do not also direct) to be auteurs. The Auteur Theory will have to make room for screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

Regardless of who is directing, every Charlie Kaufman scriptï¿½ Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, for exampleï¿½bears his unique stamp (or, to continue the unnecessary use of pretentious words, his imprimatur). Even the one Kaufman has disowned due to differences with director George Clooney (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) is unmistakably his work. Kaufman's screenplays are much more than a starting point for a film. Kaufman is the sole architect of his movies. Everythingï¿½the acting, the direction, the editingï¿½flows from the script. It doesn't matter who Kaufman's collaborators are, or how much latitude they have. Kaufman screenplays still grow up to be Kaufman films. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Kaufman is the master of externalizing the internal world of his protagonists, which he accomplishes through such devices as complex voiceover and elaborate imaginary sequences. Kaufman is always poking fun at his characters' foiblesï¿½foibles that we usually can recognize in ourselvesï¿½but he empathizes with them at the same time.

His screenplays are always ironic, amusing, and unpredictable, and what he puts on the screen should rarely be read literally. Like Kaufman's previous stories, therefore, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a wildly inventive exploration of a man's psyche. Half the film, which takes its title from the Alexander Pope poem ï¿½Eloisa to Abelard,ï¿½ takes place inside the protagonist's head. The premise is simple, even silly. Lined up chronologically, the story is this: Joel (Jim Carrey) discovers that ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of him erased through a medical procedure invented by Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). In anger and desperation Joel contacts the good doctor and his staff (Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst), demanding to have his own memories of Clementine erased. However, as Joel lies trapped in a lucid dream with the procedure well underway, he has a change of heart. Of course, the story is not lined up chronologically. Kaufman introduces us to Joel after the procedure is already complete, as he meets Clementine for what they both think is the first time.

Then the film works backward. During the procedure itself, Kaufman probes every dimension of Joel and Clementine's relationship, bouncing around temporally like an LSD-enhanced version of Two for the Road (the great 1967 relationship study with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney). We see the initial attraction two people can feel for one another, despite rather extreme differences. We see how the differences that initially attract cause problems later. We see the depressing ordinariness that long-term relationships can sink into, as well as the lingering resentments betrayed by offhanded remarks like, ï¿½Do you really think you could take care of a child?ï¿½ We see the fights that can occur over trivialities like hair on soap in the shower. And underneath all that, we see love. A common relationship dynamic is for one party to fall into the role of the Responsible One. Joel and Clementine are no different. The twist is that Carrey plays the Responsible One, while Winslet plays the outrageous, unpredictable character. Surprisingly, both actors are extremely effective cast against type. Winslet's talents are well-known, but we don't often see her playing contemporary characters who dye their hair all the colors of the rainbow.

She's just as entrancing as she is in corsets. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey wake up on a snowy beach in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey, on the other hand, is a revelation. He is credibly taciturn and introspective, and although there are some Jim Carrey moments (when he tries to hide his memories of Clementine amid his memories of childhood), they serve the story. Kaufman, being Kaufman, has given Carrey the benefit of voiceover to communicate with the audience, which makes up for any weaknesses Carrey may have as a dramatic actorï¿½not that any weaknesses are in evidence. The sublime supporting cast also strengthens the film. Mark Ruffalo (as a bizarre computer geek with a pompadour) and Elijah Wood (as a hobbit-like interloper who tries to replace Joel as Clementine's boyfriend) establish a strong rapport. Kirsten Dunst is, well, Kirsten Dunst, and Tom Wilkinsonï¿½the perfect character actor, as always. Michel Gondry, who previously collaborated with Kaufman on Human Nature, is a natural director for this material.

A wildly creative music video director who has worked in particular with Bjork and the White Stripes, Gondry's extravagant visual landscapes have been consistently described as groundbreaking and visionary. Gondry brings a lot to Eternal Sunshine with his ingenious and expressive realizations of Joel's imaginary tableaus. A music video director must nevertheless be strictly faithful to the material he is given. He cannot alter it to make it more to his liking as a movie director can. Rather, he must be the perfect accompanist, which makes Gondry the perfect accompanist to Kaufman, who stayed involved with Eternal Sunshine through production and post, and served as an executive producer. Though it bears Gondry's strong influence, Eternal Sunshine remains Kaufman through and through, and Gondry's story credit should not be given too much weight. What happened was that, over dinner, Gondry and his friend Pierre Bismuth came up with the premise of someone erasing someone else from their memory. The rest is Kaufman. It may not occur to some people that Eternal Sunshine is a science-fiction film, but that's what it is. It's the best kind of science fictionï¿½the kind that uses imaginary or hypothetical situations to pursue universal truths.

Philip K. Dick, an indefatigable explorer of the nature of identity and consciousness, would have been proud to call this story his own. However, the film Eternal Sunshine is most reminiscent of, thematically and even structurally, is Dark City. The two films are nothing like each other from an experiential standpoint, but Dark City probed the same links between memory, identity, and love. If you somehow forgot you ever knew your lover and met her for the first time today, would you be drawn to her? Can you do away with an emotion by doing away with a memory? Does the memory create the emotion, or does the emotion exist independently? We suppress memories all the time, in the unconscious effort to rid ourselves of pain. It doesn't work, and even if we could rid ourselves of pain so easily, should we want to? Our emotions, good and bad, make us who we are. Kaufman's previous screenplays have always been intellectually rigorous, but you wouldn't necessary say they have a lot of passion. For all their wit, they are cerebral movies. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is different. It's a love story.

It's just as cerebral as the others, but it has a tremendous heart. That's what separates it from the rest, making it a masterpiece that will most certainly never be forgottenï¿½or erased. View All Critic Reviews (234) Audience Reviews for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Finally got round to watching this movie from begining to end and i thoroughly enjoyed it! I love seeing Jim Carrey in more serious roles rather than his usual annoying goofey self and even when his goofeyness was required in this movie it was toned down quite dramatically! Its a great cast, i love the concept and is just an entertaining and slightly confusing at the start which keeps you thinking! Everything about this movie is beautiful, its beautifully written, beautifully acted and a lovely and beautiful concept with a strong meaning as well! Well worth the watch! Film Crazy Super Reviewer As good on the second viewing as the first... This is one of the best movies of all time. Maybe the best non-violent movie of all time. Intricate plotting and flawed but entirely lovable characters you want to shower empathy and forgiveness upon. Letitia Lew Super Reviewer I feel like I should like this movie more, but I don't.

I'm predisposed to think of Kate Winslet as a feisty English rose, and perhaps that's what makes me not buy her as this offbeat character with multicolored hair and a foul mouth. She doesn't transform herself. Alice Shen Super Reviewer Wonderful picture featuring a brilliant and surprising performance by Jim Carrey Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a brilliant affair that boasts a very well crafted story and performances. Mixing elements of drama and fantasy, the film is a refreshing take on your traditional romantic film, and it delivers something totally different. I really enjoyed the film's path on how they handled the material, and Carrey delivers the performance of his career with this one. Since Jim Carrey is known for comedic work, this is a film that proves he is able to act in other genres of film. With this film, he breaks new ground in his career, and definitely makes the film that much better. The story itself is well thought out, and the direction is great as well. This is a terrific, entertaining picture that delivers an engaging two hours of solid entertainment. If you're looking for a well constructed drama that is original and not just another rehash, then this is the film watch.

I honestly didn't expect much from this film, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The film might surprise skeptics, and it most certainly impressed me. I thought that this ranked as one of Jim Carrey's best, and it was nice to see him take on a more dramatic role as well. To me, it's always interesting to see comedy actors take on serious roles as we don't know what to expect, and in the case of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we get a surprising, well delivered performance from Jim Carrey that compliments a wonderful story. Alex roy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (DVD, 2004, Widescreen) | eBay Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (DVD, 2004, Widescreen) 4.7average based on 58 product ratings 5 Trending price is based on prices over last 90 days. Brand NewLOWEST PRICE Sold by estocks_usa Est. delivery by Jan 30 Sold by thebostoniancollectorscompany See details for delivery est. Sold by 78birdbrain See details for delivery est.

All listings for this product Any Condition Compare products others also viewed THIS PRODUCT Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (DVD, 2004, Widescreen) TRENDING PRICE Movie/TV TitleEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Leading RoleJIM Carrey Bring It On (2000 film) Kirsten Dunst by fashionpassionf... Jan 05, 2009 REMOVING MEMORIES OF SOMEONE... WOULD YOU? Features Actors:Elijah Wood,Jim Carrey,Kate Winslet,Kirsten Dunst & Tom Wilkinson Rating: R Running Time: 108 min. If you could willingly have the memory of someone removed from your consciousness, would you? The film tells the story of Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet), two people who casually met, fell in love, and drifted apart. Some time after they've separated, Joel finds out that Clementine visited a local psychiatrist (Tom Wilkinson) and had her memory of their entire relationship erased. Anger, pseudo-revenge, and desperation push him to seek out the same doctor and have the procedure to erase his memories of her as well.

Three technicians (Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and Elijah Wood) visit Joel's apartment and work through the night to remove the memories of Clementine from an unconscious Joel's mind. The remaining bulk of the movie actually takes place in Joel's mind as he suddenly decides he doesn't want to forget Clementine. Unable to wake up, he struggles through literal incarnations of his subconscious realities, his dream worlds, and his memories to hide remnants of Clementine where the technicians can't find them.Sound complicated? While it becomes slightly difficult to follow as the movie pulses along, it steadily becomes clear what's happening inside of Joel's mind. Patience is required as the linear timeline of his memories eventually comes into focus (here's a hint -- keep your eye on Clementine's hair color to track the timeline of their relationship history). Those with a keen mind, an attention to detail, and the desire to unravel character arc mysteries are almost sure to fall in love with 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.' Would recommend to rent or buy.Hope this helps you decide.Thanks for taking the time to read this.Please click YES at the bottom. :) Read full review by 109250233@delet...

Jul 29, 2010 Great Movie! -synopsis from IMBD "Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is an emotionally withdrawn man and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) is his girlfriend who is a dysfunctional free spirit. They are inexplicably attracted to each other despite their different personalities. They do not realize it at the time, but they are former lovers now separated after two years together. After a nasty fight, Clementine has had her memories of their relationship erased from her mind. Upon learning this, Joel is devastated and goes to the doctor to have the same procedure of erasing her memories done. However, while unconscious, Joel has second thoughts and decides he wants to keep his memories of Clementine. Much of the film takes place in Joel's brain as he tries to find a way to preserve his memories of Clementine and two Lacuna techies Patrick (Elijah Wood) and Stan (Mark Ruffalo) try to erase the memories. We watch their love and courtship go in reverse. The memories are slowly erased while Joel tries his best to resist the procedure and hide inside his mind.

In separate and related story arcs, the employees of Lacuna Corporation are revealed to be more than peripheral characters in scenes which further show the harm caused by the memory-altering procedure. Mary (Kirsten Dunst) has had an affair with the married doctor, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, who heads the company (Tom Wilkinson). She agreed to have the affair erased from her memory when his wife discovered the relationship. Patrick who is lonely and socially inept, becomes fixated on Clementine and uses Joel's personal mementos that he gave to Lacuna as part of the procedure in order to seduce Clementine. These romantic entanglements turn out to have a critical effect on the main story line of the relationship between Joel and Clementine. Once Mary learns of the affair she has had with the doctor, she steals the company's records and sends them to all of its clients. Thus Joel and Clementine both get to listen to their initial tape recordings at Lacuna, and afterwards realize that even if everything in life isn't perfect, their relationship can still be worthwhile." -from IMBD.com Read full review by mattrick360 Jul 18, 2010 Resonates with the audience's lives.

I love this movie for a few different reasons. First off the actors are great. Jim Carrey drops his crazy comedy roles and takes up a serious and shy schlub(Joel) who meets the girl of his dreams...or so he thinks. Kate Winslet plays Clementine and is absolutely fantastic in her role. This couple had some great chemistry and they really drove the movie. Another aspect which was great was the memory sequences when things begin breaking down. There are many subtle and not so subtle elements happening during scenes (i.e. book's titles disappearing, cars fading away piece by piece). The message at the end of the movie is also great because you can interpret it for yourself and relate to the movie so much, or at least I did. I've watched this in my film analysis class and half of the students really got emotional (mostly guys) because they could remember a time that they had a loved one and would hate to lose those memories like what happens to Joel in the movie. The movie really makes you look inward at yourself and pulls out the emotions that we try to keep hidden. If you love fantasy and drama flix with a bit of comedy spread around then this is a must see for you.

Read full review by seasonschange4 Mar 11, 2013 Hard to find dvd's is fun and easy on eBay and most excellent sellers. :) Why you bought it - What you like most about it - What you dislike about it - Whether or not you would buy the product again 1) end of times prophesy, and I'm looking for information, seriously. 2) eBay is a great source for dvd's, better than any local store. 3) dislikes? NONE. 4) yes I'd buy more dvd's from eBay. I love eBay :) by hawdave Jun 04, 2011 Fascinating & Haunting. A Wonderful Movie Most People Have Never Seen. "How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd" -Alexander Pope Brilliant camera trickery and subliminal visual effects colorfully decorate this intense examination of the emotions surrounding love and loss. Jim Carrey's departure from slapstick humor is well received and has genuine chemistry with Kate Winslet's magnetic performance.

Exploring the surreal and the absurd, it's an underrated acheivement for conjuring the subconscious into a relatable medium. Supported by a great cast, this thought-provoking movie asks the eternal question: What would you do? Best Selling in DVDs & Blu-ray Discs Trending price is based on prices over last 90 days. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - Decent Films Decent Films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) B SDG Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is best known for a pair of offbeat, madly creative, but scorchingly misanthropic existential comedies directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation . Both films dazzle with their continual creative one-upsmanship as Kaufman piles conceit upon conceit, yet eventually one feels, to borrow a metaphor from Slant critic Jeremiah Kipp, as if one is watching a chess player pushing pieces around to be clever rather than to win, unconcerned how hopelessly he strands them. 2004, Focus Features. Directed by Michel Gondry.

Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo. Artistic/Entertainment Value R Caveat Spectator Depictions of various immoral sexual situations, generally non-graphic (i.e., characters in various states of undress but little or no explicit nudity), including casual fornication, references to adultery, and a fleeting depiction of masturbation; recurring profanity and much obscene language; recreational drug use. About These Ratings In my review of Adaptation I charged that "Kaufman creates protagonists who torture and berate themselves, but never get out of themselves — not even when, as in Malkovich, they literally get into someone else’s head. Even this awakens no shred of concern for any other human being, but becomes merely a new forum in which to seek self-gratification, a goal Kaufman’s characters inevitably pursue to the most grotesque and disturbing extremes." Obviously, a Kaufman film called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind isn’t going to be as cheerful and wholesome as the title might suggest. Despair, isolation, and loneliness continue to hang like a fog across his world.

Eternal Sunshine also resembles his other films in its characters’ milieu of general dissipation, casual sex, drug use, and so on. Yet there’s a difference this time. In this film Kaufman’s characters finally lift their heads out of the fog and dare to hope — to move beyond narcissism and solipsism and actually try to make contact with one another. It’s not a film that everyone will care to see, but I think it’s ultimately humanistic and hopeful rather than nihilistic and misanthropic, and that’s something. That said, from the opening scene it’s clear that Kaufman hasn’t lost his driving anxieties and obsessions. The film opens with a shot studying the sleeping face of Joel (Jim Carrey in a remarkably restrained performance). The expression on his face as he comes to and squints painfully around the room suggests that consciousness itself is a frightfully unbearable imposition. He slides stiffly out of bed, unready to face the world, and we know at once that Joel is a typical Kaufman male protagonist, pathologically introspective, emotionally paralyzed, no more at home in the world than in his own skin.

Later, watching Joel meet a seemingly capricious, almost predatory young woman named Clementine (Kate Winslet) with distinct echoes of Catherine Keener’s character from Being John Malkovich, I began to feel some resistance to the notion of characters being burdened with such hangups and quirks for no better reason than that they happen to be characters in a Charlie Kaufman story. Eventually, however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this time there actually is a reason why Joel and Clementine are such damaged goods, and that it’s integral to the plot. What the reason is is the film’s key conceit; not to reveal too much, I’ll just say that as in Being John Malkovich, there is a magical-realist fantasy conceit, and that we eventually realize that Joel and Clementine’s relationship might from one perspective be said to have been doomed before it started, to have ended before it began. Or has it? Yes, they’re both damaged goods, capable of being petty, shallow, spiteful. Beyond that, the world they live in is in many ways against them, full of capricious forces and unprincipled people seeking in various ways to tear them apart.

To a large extent, Eternal Sunshine is about the mistakes we make without knowing why, the consequences we don’t understand until it’s too late, the plain human selfishness and sin and stupidity that broadside our better intentions and hopes. Yet in the end, perhaps, the film suggests that it finally comes down to a matter of choice. For all the factors outside our control, for all our own selfishness and pettiness, ultimately we must always choose to give up or choose to go on. Whether Joel and Clementine in fact make it as a couple, how long they are able to make it last, is another question; but Eternal Sunshine seems to suggest that at least they aren’t doomed from the outset. Whether they fail in the end or not, at least they have a chance, a choice. And certainly they can be together in trying, in contrast to the protagonists of Kaufman’s earlier films, all bottled up inside themselves, hermetically sealed off from one another. Ironically, Eternal Sunshine does echo the device of earlier Kaufman films of locating much of the action within the mind of one of the characters.

In fact, many of the scenes between Joel and Clementine are the equivalent of a dream sequence, in which one of them is only a projection of the other’s mind. Yet far from turning the other person into a mere object of fantasy, this device instead illuminates the significance of memory in our relationships with other people. Love depends upon a shared history, shared memories. Who we love, in large part, is who we are. Even if we lose the one we love, whether through death, a breakdown in the relationship, or some other cause, the significance of that love in our lives survives in memory. But suppose we lose even our memories? If we don’t even remember that it happened, does it matter at all? What if death is the end, if all our memories die with us? If that happens, does it have any value, any meaning? Did it ever? If not, is any happiness we experience in this life a chimera, a dream? Kaufman’s films have always raised big questions — or, at least, characters in his films have raised big questions.

In the past, I’ve never gotten the impression that Kaufman himself really cared about the questions, or for that matter about the characters — only the dramatic effect of catching the characters musing about the questions. This time it finally seems like there may be a level of emotional investment beyond the glibness and cleverness. And for the first time he allows us to hope that there really may be a ray of eternal sunshine beyond the fog of self-absorption, and that ignorance and forgetfulness may not be a necessary prerequisite of bliss. Tags: Movie Review - - FILM REVIEW; Washing That Girl Out of His Head - NYTimes.com FILM REVIEW; Washing That Girl Out of His Head By ELVIS MITCHELL Published: March 19, 2004 Often, when Jim Carrey plays it straight, all of the vitality is drained from his face; he looks like a root- canal patient trying out a pleasant expression for his oral surgeon. In Michel Gondry's ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' -- a title that will frustrate ushers trying to abbreviate it for marquees -- Mr.

Carrey finally understands that he needn't cut a character off from pleasure, and so his Joel Barish is serious rather than anestheticized. But this angular and intelligent romantic comedy isn't entirely consistent. Even as you laugh, it's a movie you admire more than love. Mr. Gondry, displaying an impressively quicksilver, scrambling technique, doesn't exactly seem to be listening to his actors. You can almost hear him shouting at the gathered crowds just outside the camera frame. It helps that he is working with a much better script than he had for ''Human Nature,'' his previous collaboration with the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Mr. Kaufman has spent more time cataloging -- and sending up -- American bourgeois pettiness and immaturity than any screenwriter going. One of the funniest things about Mr.

Kaufman is that all of his filmed scripts -- ''Being John Malkovich,'' ''Human Nature,'' ''Adaptation'' and now ''Sunshine'' -- sound like titles from REM's ''Reckoning.'' (The title actually comes from a poem by Alexander Pope -- or as one of the characters calls him, ''Pope Alexander.'') The mournful, paranoid quality of ''Eternal Sunshine,'' which opens nationwide today, especially brings to mind REM's ''South Central Rain'': ''The city on the river, there's a girl without a dream,'' which turns out to be literally true later in this film for Clem (Kate Winslet). Clem is the brash, loquacious bookstore employee who meets Joel (Mr. Carrey) as he wanders the streets alone on Valentine's Day -- a self-consciously poignant conceit if ever there was one. The two of them fall in love under a glum, flannel cloud cover that could use some eternal sunshine. With her streaks of cobalt-blue hair, Clem has the look of one of those Barnes & Noble information-counter girls whose eyes haze over with contempt if you aren't asking for help finding Thomas Pynchon -- or Charlie Kaufman. Ms.

Winslet precisely limns the neurotic assertiveness that makes someone like Clem seem less attractive every time she opens her mouth, yet she also projects the charm of someone who needs to be heard. Mr. Gondry and the superlative cinematographer Ellen Kuras mock the title by setting the film in a wintry suburban New York and using as many available light sources as possible. A shot of Joel and Clem flat on their backs on a frozen lake is an awe-inspiring piece of visual magic, both romantic and conceptual; they'd both like to freeze the moment. It also captures the differences between the two; Clem had to coerce Joel out of his shell, and he doesn't bother to cloak his resentment until he joins her. Joel's growing infatuation with Clem is bruised when he finds that she's had all memories of him erased from her mind. Devastated, he goes to the inventor of the process, Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), for the same treatment. When the heart-sick Joel asks if the procedure causes brain damage, Dr. Mierzwiak replies, ''Technically, it is brain damage.'' Mr.

Kaufman sets much of the film's second half at Joel's apartment, where the technicians Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) are giving Joel's mind a Clem-bake, eliminating all traces of her. The inspiration for ''Sunshine,'' seems to be Harold Ramis's ''Groundhog Day,'' which -- like any great movie -- gains in stature as time passes. Where Bill Murray dominated that film -- and its accomplishment seemed overshadowed because he bestrode the picture like a giant -- ''Sunshine'' is filled with a group of outsize selfish folks whose minor-league brattiness makes the second half of the film funny and ugly. Stan obviously doesn't have respect for professionalism; he trashes Joel's apartment when his co-worker, May (Kirsten Dunst), joins him. Patrick falls for Clem while dry-cleaning Joel's memories, and takes advantage of his position. Joel, slightly cognizant of the intruders in his home while he's under, experiences the waking nightmare we've all had, dreaming of the room we've dozed off in and trying to rouse ourselves from sleep.

In the meantime, the heartache-cleansing process is stealing away all of his beloved -- and painful -- times with Clem. This entire section is breathtakingly realized, melting several bad dreams into one, and Mr. Gondry's swift, improvised direction bleaches the portentousness from the conception. It succeeds so completely that we understand why the director's music videos -- especially his work with Bjork and the White Stripes -- work so well. He can define contradictory emotions with extraordinary clarity and alacrity. It's why he's so suited to handling much of this particular Kaufman script. But when it comes to getting a single point across in ''Sunshine,'' he's at a loss. Mr. Gondry's witty direction allows the movie to gloss over the fact that this psychological erasure is treated as a given, instead of establishing a social context for accepting the operation -- a major fault. Dr. Mierzwiak is the only functioning grown-up in the picture and later even he is discovered to have feet of clay. Then again, ''Sunshine'' is a feat of clay, with Mr.

Kaufman consistently -- almost compulsively -- handling and reshaping the material, while dropping clues in the opening that all is not what it seems. A key is Joel's stuttering on the word ''remember.'' Mr. Kaufman has conjured the film equivalent of a Philip K. Dick Hallmark card. The movie has all of the trademarks of a Kaufman script, including hidden recesses of the mind and personality exposed and, most important, a nerdy, socially inept protagonist -- for this scenarist, qualifications for the red badge of courage. This results in Joel's being the least developed character in the film. Mr. Carrey lugs the picture around on his lachrymal ducts, tear traces nearly burning permanent furrows in his cheeks. Clem's amorous bullying aside, she's right about Joel. Part of his personality is as lint-gray as the skies in the movie. Dolorous self-pity isn't particularly attractive, though Mr. Carrey doesn't descend into the bathetic. Joel often appears nondescript, and Mr. Carrey puts in enough understated effort that the lack of delineation almost doesn't register -- a stylized way of compensating for a deficit.

He does get to show some aplomb in the final scene, when Joel acts out the most mature sentiment ever found in a Kaufman script, that having one's psyche purged isn't necessarily a good thing. What becomes of the broken-hearted, after the conversation has dimmed, is that they get over it. And by concluding with an adult realization, ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' ultimately lets sunlight peek through the gloom, in more ways than one. ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has strong language, sexuality and alcohol consumption. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND Directed by Michel Gondry; written by Charlie Kaufman, based on a story by Mr. Kaufman, Mr. Gondry and Pierre Bismuth; director of photography, Ellen Kuras; edited by Valdis Oskarsdottir; music by Jon Brion; production designer, Dan Leigh; produced by Steve Golin and Anthony Bregman; released by Focus Features. Running time: 108 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Jim Carrey (Joel Barish), Kate Winslet (Clementine Kruczynski), Kirsten Dunst (Mary), Mark Ruffalo (Stan), Elijah Wood (Patrick) and Tom Wilkinson (Dr. Howard Mierzwiak). March 22 2004 4:33 PM The Science of Eternal Sunshine You can't erase your boyfriend from your brain, but the movie gets the rest of it right. By Steven Johnson One of the many rewarding parts of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the fact that the film contains almost no dialogue that sounds like actual neuroscience. The film, as you may already know, tells the story of two star-crossed lovers whose stars have gotten so crossed that they decide to erase their memories of each other, using the services of a company called Lacuna Inc. Lacuna's offices have been cunningly art-directed to look like a low-rent plastic surgeon's, which is precisely the point. Memory erasure, in Eternal Sunshine's world, is just the next logical step up from breast augmentation and Prozac.

When Clementine (Kate Winslet's character) first decides to shed her memories of Joel (played by Jim Carrey), she does it "on a lark," the way you might get your forehead Botoxed on a whim. But despite the futurist premise, Sunshine spares us the gratuitous speech explaining How It All Works. There's no animated "Mr. DNA" à la Jurassic Park * or some hopeless jargon about "hacking into the neocortex." The closest you get is a nervous conversation between Joel and his doctor: "Is there any risk of brain damage?" The doctor replies, "Technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage. It's on a par with a night of heavy drinking, nothing you'll miss." For the record, using today's technology, it is not possible to selectively erase an entire person from your memory. But Eternal Sunshine still demonstrates a remarkably nuanced understanding of how the brain forms memories, particularly memories about intense emotional experiences. The film displays a more subtle model of memory formation than the acclaimed thriller Memento, in which a man incapable of forming long-term memories hunts down a killer; he furiously scribbles clues onto Polaroids before his memory fades to black.

Advertisement Memento revolved around an older model of memory formation, from the days when the brain was imagined as a wetware computer. The fading of memory in Memento is about the loss of pure information, like an erased hard drive. In Eternal Sunshine, the richness of memory is as much about emotion as raw data. There's a wonderful throwaway line at one point in the film, where Joel is reliving a memory of hiding under the kitchen table as a 4-year-old, calling out for his mother. "I really want her to pick me up," the grown-up Joel says, as he relives the experience. "It's amazing how strong this feeling is." The emphasis on feeling over data processing puts Eternal Sunshine squarely in the mainstream of the brain sciences today. We now know that the brain stores emotional memories very differently from unemotional ones. Negative emotional memories, for instance, tend to capture more details about the experience than positive ones: You remember the general feeling of a nice day at the beach, but you remember every little detail of the two seconds when that Buick crashed into you back in high school.

Particularly traumatic memories appear to be captured by two separate parts of the brain: the hippocampus, the normal seat of memory, and the amygdala, one of the brain's emotional centers. People incapable of forming long-term memories thanks to hippocampal damage can nonetheless form subconscious memories of traumatic events if their amygdala is intact. Someone suffering from the Memento condition would likely have a feeling of general unease encountering a person or a situation that had caused them harm in the past, though they wouldn't be able to put their finger on what was making them uncomfortable. In Eternal Sunshine, something like this happens. There are several instances in the movie where Clementine appears to have a trace emotional memory of an event that has been wiped from her waking mind. Eternal Sunshine plays on this idea of traumatic memories being stored in separate regions of the brain in another way, too. In the dazzling, mind-bending sequence at the center of the film, as Joel's memories of Clementine are being steadily eliminated, the unconscious Joel decides that he doesn't want to go through with the erasure after all.

Unable to wake himself up, he embarks on a kind of psychic journey with a remembered Clementine, trying to escape the high-tech censor that's steadily stripping away his recollection. As the situation gets increasingly desperate, Clementine suggests burying a memory of her in some place in his brain that she doesn't belong, buried far away from the probing scanner. She suggests a moment of intense humiliation from Joel's youth, and in a flash they're in a memory of a Joel's mother walking in on teenage Joel masturbating. The fact that Joel is re-experiencing these memories as they're being deleted is consistent with one influential recent theory about how targeted memory erasure might be possible. Advertisement For a long time, memory researchers assumed that memories were like volumes stored in a library. When your brain remembered something, it was simply searching through the stacks and then reading aloud from whatever passage it discovered. But some scientists now believe that memories effectively get rewritten every time they're activated, thanks to a process called reconsolidation. To create a synaptic connection between two neurons—the associative link that is at the heart of all neuronal learning—you need protein synthesis.

Studies on rats suggest that if you block protein synthesis during the execution of learned behavior—pushing a lever to get food, for instance—the learned behavior disappears. It appears that instead of simply recalling a memory that had been forged days or months ago, the brain is forging it all over again, in a new associative context. In a sense, when we remember something, we create a new memory, one that is shaped by the changes that have happened to our brain since the memory last occurred to us. Theoretically, if you could block protein synthesis in a human brain while triggering a memory, you could make a targeted erasure. The technicians at Lacuna Inc. appear to be doing something along these lines in the film. When Joel first arrives, he's asked to bring in all the objects he associates with Clementine, and he's recorded giving a long description of all his thoughts and feelings about her. While he's exploring these memories of his ex-girlfriend, the techies scan his brain activity with a machine that looks suspiciously like a salon hair dryer but that generates images similar to a real fMRI machine.

They refer to this process as making a "map of Clementine." The next day they give Joel some kind of pill that knocks him out and systematically re-triggers all the memories they've recorded. As they're re-triggered, the memories disintegrate while a machine erases them. There's no science babble in the mix, but the basic sequence is broadly compatible with the reconsolidation theory. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is remarkably in sync with modern neuroscience, but in one respect the film put its emphasis in the wrong place. To be fair, it's a failing shared with a host of recent films about memory loss: Memento, 50 First Dates, Paycheck. Selective erasure of memories may not be a feasible procedure in the near future, but cosmetic memory enhancement is likely to be a reality in the next 10 years, just as targeted mood enhancers like Prozac have become commonplace over the past 10. You won't be able to sharpen your memory of a single person, but you may well be able to take a pill that will increase your general faculties of recollection. This is the ultimate irony of Eternal Sunshine and films like it.

While the culture frets over the perils of high-tech erasure, we should really be worrying about the opposite: what will happen when we remember too much. Correction , April 2, 2004: The article originally stated that an animated mosquito, rather than "Mr. DNA," explains the science to viewers of Jurassic Park. Return to the corrected sentence.

Question: Jim Carrey played which character in the 2004 film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"?
Answer: Joel Barish