seether166's Full Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
...eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Alexander Pope - "Eloisa to Abelard"
The best word to describe this film is "unique." In some ways, the movie reminds me a lot of Memento in that you learn things in a non-straightforward manner. The difference being, Memento was a linear progression, just reversed. In Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind the audience learns bits and pieces of the story in a very scattered, but effective order. The scattering is very reminiscent of memory, which is effective since the entire movie centers around the concept of memory.
Memories are both the best things about are lives and the worst things. I think all of us at some point have wished we didn't remember certain things about our life. As Kirsten Dunst quotes Friedrich Nietzsche, "Blessed are the forgetful for they get the best of even their blunders"
In the beginning of the movie we see Joel Barrish (Jim Carrey) as a straitlaced and rather socially inept character who falls in live with Clementine (Kate Winslet), a spunky, impulsive girl who is not at all his type. The
interesting part is that we only see a part of the beginning of their relationship and then it is over.
In reality, their relationship lasted two years before the impulsive Clementine had Joel erased from her memory after a bad fight. A small company runs a mind erasing service, for which Kirsten Dunst works, and they can selectively erase memories from your brain.
The rest of the movie centers around Joel's character getting Clementine erased from his mind as well. The movie jumps around from memories in Joel's mind to the present tense as the erasing is being performed. The non-linear way in which you develop a picture of their relationship is splendidly done.
One of my favorite scenes of the movie is Joel and Clementine sitting on a beach. Currently, the memories are being erased and Joel is aware of this in his head.
Clemtentine: Joel, it's all going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.
It might make more sense after having seen the movie, but I think it speaks volumes of truth. Memories are fleeting and the time in which we create them never comes again. The most impressive part of the movie is that it leaves you thinking about it for days afterward.
Jim Carrey is absolutely great as an actor in this movie. I liked his work in The Truman Show but this was even better. He wears a half beard throughout most of the movie which further separates him from the spontaneous comedian he is known as in other movies. His work as a serious actor is among the best, in my opinion.
Kate Winslet also did a great job with her character. I hardly recognized her from the annoying girl in Titanic which is a tribute to her acting ability. I wish Kirsten Dunst had been in the movie a bit more. She was on screen a lot, but her character was never developed too fully. All the same, her character turns out to be very interesting in the end.
I really can't say enough about this movie. It will leaving you thinking about memory, and what you would like to remember for days. It's not an action filled movie, but rather a typical story told from a completely different angle. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they breakup, they forget each other. It's how they forget each other, and through that, remember each other that is amazing.
A guys finds out that his on-again, off-again girlfriend has undergone an experimental procedure to erase him from her memory. Frustrated that the wom...More at HotMovieSale.com
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