rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2004
Directed by Michel Gondry; produced by Anthony Bregman, Steve Golin; screenplay by Charlie Kaufman
Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
When you read the name of Jim Carrey you expect a certain film that is
probably the opposite of what 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' is.
Carrey has never been more quiet and maybe he is even better here than he
was in 'The Truman Show'. His performance alone makes this film worth
watching, although maybe I just think that because the film is interesting
in many more ways.
The screenplay comes from Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote 'Being John
Malkovich' and 'Adaptation'. Like with those two films Kaufman gives us with
'Eternal Sunshine' a very interesting story, highly original, something we
have not seen before. Not even remotely. The shy Joel (Jim Carrey) and
impulsive Clementine (Kate Winslet) fall in love. After a bad period in
their relation Clementine decides to erase Joel from her memory. Joel
discovers this and out of revenge does the same things. The procedure, while
Joel is sleeping, is done by a company called Lacuna Inc., run by Dr. Howard
Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). The people who work for him are Mary (Kirsten
Dunst), Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood). During this procedure
Joel sees his memories literally falling apart, slowly starting to regret
his decision. In his memories he and Clementine try to stop it.
Saying more about the story would spoil things for you. There are some
subplots, mainly dealing with the Lacuna people, that are quite interesting,
but the main story is inside the memories of Joel. The world director Michel
Gondry and Kaufman have created is wonderful. Basically we see memory after
memory slowly disappearing, with Carrey and Winslet trying to run away
before they are erased from it as well. In these scenes Carrey is always
perfectly in character. There are moments he could be the good old Jim
Carrey, but like Bill Murray in 'Lost in Translation' he does a perfect job
in controlling himself. Winslet makes a lot more noise here, creating a
lovable character. The supporting characters have enough screen time to make
us care for them. Especially Dunst and Wilkinson have some terrific scenes
with an outcome that is very important for the story. The way Kaufman uses
this characters, how he makes every storyline interesting is just great.
If you want to see a different kind of film with a great story and terrific
performances 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' is the one to see.