Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

A film review by David N. Butterworth

Copyright 2004 David N. Butterworth

*** (out of ****)

With his trippy, cerebrally-exacting screenplays for "Being John

Malkovich," "Adaptation.," and now "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless

Mind," you have to wonder what kind of pernicious, whacked-out parenting

Charlie Kaufman was subjected to as a child. Or, for that matter, what kind

of prescription medication he's currently taking to deal with those past

experiences.

Directed by Michel Gondry (who also helmed the Kaufman-penned

anthropological comedy "Human Nature"), "Eternal Sunshine…" is

another high concept--and totally original--story from one of Hollywood's

most imaginative writers. Like "‘Malkovich" and "Adaptation." before it the

film gets inside the heads of its characters like no other. WAY inside.

     I loved the ideas in the film, the suggestion that the way to be
eternally

happy is to free your mind of all bad associations and encumbrances

(that being, in a nutshell, the paraphrased meaning behind the film's

unbearable lightness of title, a phase attributed to Alexander Pope in the

film, or maybe that was Pope Alexander?), and I loved the characters, the

performers, with Kate Winslet staggeringly good as a young woman

whose hair color changes as often as her mood. She sparks from the

outset; impassioned and a little bit schizophrenic, credible, likeable,

more.

But ultimately "Eternal Sunshine…" is simply too high-concept to

resonate. I found myself enjoying its aspirations but was confused and

occasionally bored by its destinations. And its failing, relatively speaking

(this is still a good film after all, just not a great one), is that it's just

too bloody poignant.

Jim Carrey plays Joel Barish, a shy and compulsive individual who

learns that his recent girlfriend Clementine (Winslet), whom he met at a

Long Island beach party or on the train to Montauk or some place he no

longer remembers, has had an experimental procedure performed to

delete him from her memory. Alternatively crushed and angered by this

revelation, Joel employs the services of Lacuna, Inc. to vengefully return

the memory-removing favor.

     But love, it turns out, is harder to erase than one might think.

As Joel undergoes the scientific treatment at the hands of Dr. Howard

Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) and his mind-altering surrogates (played with

compatible affection by Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and "The Lord of the

Rings"'s Elijah Wood) he recognizes the importance of Clem in his life

and attempts to hide her away in the outer fringes of his psyche, a

process that proves to be easier thought than done.

     As he managed in "The Truman Show," comedian Carrey pulls off 

another empathetic Everyman whose mind, one he's slowly losing, is

being remotely controlled. His performance here, like the character he

plays, is not as flashy or extroverted as Winslet's but it's every bit as

special. Not only can the man talk out of his backside but he can act as

well!

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" offers up a mesmerizing

premise that, with the help of the engaging Carrey and Winslet, manages

to be occasionally bright, often times moving, and sporadically amusing.

Had screenwriter Kaufman toned down his concept (which calls to task

the very existence of deja-vu) a brow or two, it might have been ever better.

--

David N. Butterworth

dnb@dca.net

Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"

online at http://members.dca.net/dnb

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X-RT-RatingText: 3/4