Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Cast
Jim Carrey .... Joel Barish
Kate Winslet .... Clementine Kruczynski
Gerry Robert Byrne .... Train Conductor
Elijah Wood .... Patrick
Thomas Jay Ryan .... Frank
Directed by
Michel Gondry
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
9/10. Now this is truly amazing. Writer Charlie Kaufman wrote a comedy that
I didn't find overrated. Although I really liked Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind, his one straight drama, Being John Malkovich had no
place to go and Adaptation. had something missing to it. But Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a genius creation. Not only is it
his funniest movie, but it's also the most coherent and most
enjoyable movie.
Joel (Jim Carrey) is a rather milquetoast man who meets up with free
spirit Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they become romantically
involved. However, they endure a messy breakup and Clementine goes to
a business called Lacuna, Inc., where she has all of her memories of
Joel erased. Not wanting to be left out, Joel also goes to have his
memory erased. However, soon after it begins, Joel realizes that he
wants to keep the memory of Clementine, so he tries to reverse the
process.
Director Michel Gondry (who worked previously with Kaufman on Human
Nature) found a way to not only have the movie make sense, but to
have some striking visuals (barely any, if any, that were done by
computer fx) thrown in, also. For the most part, we see what is going
on in Joel's mind as Clementine is being erased, so it's always
interesting to see what will happen. The story, although a certain
subplot seemed unnecessary, flowed together nicely, and, although
told out of sequence, made perfect sense. That made no sense, but
you'll understand it if you see the movie.
I wouldn't say Carrey put his most subtle work here (that honor goes
to The Truman Show), but he did do a good job, and, as I have heard,
is a VERY early Oscar contender for next year. That I doubt, but it
will be interesting to watch. Winslet (who has faded from her Titanic
stardom) is also quite good. However, the supporting cast, including
Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, and Tom Wilkinson, leave
something to be desired. They don't seem to really want to be in this
movie as much as the others do.
Overall, Eternal Sunshine is a surprising film. It's surprisingly
funny, surprisingly entertaining, surprisingly dramatic, and, most of
all, surprisingly easy to follow.
Rated R for language, some drug and sexual content.
Running time: 108 minutes
Back Home