Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind

Has anyone else seen this?

I have to say, this is a great movie, and I'm not a big Charlie Kaufman fan. I greatly enjoyed Being John Malkovich, but the only thing that I really liked in Adaptation was Brian Cox's tirade about all of the rehashed elements in screenplays. That and the fact that Jonze actually used them all in the last twenty minutes!

Eternal Sunshine, however is fantastic. Perhaps it is Gondry's sensibilities that brought it where it needed to be, but Kaufman's characters shine due to the incredible performances of the cast. The whole ensemble is fantastic. Carrey and Winslet bring their pretty unlikable characters to life, actually making them accessible enough to sympathize with!

As for the supporting roles, Tom Wilkinson is great as per usual. Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo are hilarious, and Kirsten Dunst superbly pulls off a character arc that I wasn't sure she had in her.

Gondry's camerawork is fascinating as well. Everything feels like you're watching a memory. Now mind you, I don't mean it's like watching a dream. He pulls out peripheral elements in scenes in much the same way that we remember certain parts of memories, not the whole thing. The effect works like a charm.

I would love to do without a lot of the language, but it only makes sense in the world these people live in. Used to be like them, myself! Being Dad sure changes a guy...and hopefully, for the better!

A movie that touches on many subtle levels of relationship and the necessity in life to not lose the bad as to better appreciate the good, you probably don't want to miss this one.

Sean (is this Lacuna? yes, I would like to have some recent blockbusters erased from my memory...)

skspence,

Nicely put. I liked "Being John Malkovich" as well, but I do remember my initial feeling walking out of it thinking that it was by FAR the wierdest movie I had ever seen. I haven't seen the other movies though.

Eternal Sunshine was an INCREDIBLE film! I loved it! What drew me to it was not only the interesting way in which it was shot and directed however, but more because I have a VERY similar and recent experience with an ex girlfriend that puts me in the same situation that Jim's character was. I would more than gladly go and get this "brain damage" done to erase my "Clementine". Any way, the movie was amazing, and in my opinion will get quite a few acadamy awards. The way I felt coming out of Eternal Sunshine was reminiscent of how I felt after coming out of Pulp Fiction (my first Tarantino movie experience). That is to say, I loved it because it's a thinking movie. You don't just sit down in the theater, and turn your brain off. It's amazing to think that maybe Kaufman made the movie jump around as it did, to further make it seem like an "incomplete memory"? This will be another movie that I will hold in very high regard intellectually.

- Josh 8)

Nachtkriechen,

I think the beauty of this movie is that so many people can relate to it. There are times in all of our lives we wish we could forget, but it's those experiences that make us who we are. We can embrace them, learn from them, and grow, or we can dismiss them, forget them, and wither. That's the kind of universal truth that makes a movie like this shine.

Gondry's style is certainly not the reason I liked the movie, but it definitely added to my enjoyment. The memory scenes could have been extremely gimmicky, but the air he lends to them makes it all indicative of how we truly recall our pasts. The story takes a front seat, and the FX solidify the environment rather than distract the viewer as is so often the case today.

If you haven't yet: go see it. Highly recommended for mature audiences.

Sean (not sure I fit into that "mature" category, but nanny-nanny-boo-boo, I saw it anyway!)

I loved this movie! I think what Gondry captured so wonderfully was the ambience of a memory or dream: how it can be fuzzy, inaccurate, and, most importantly, bizzare. This film is a technical and editing wonder, and it is sad that it will not get noticed at the Academy in the tech categories in favour of obvious blockbusters. This film had amazing sound editing and editing...The score was touching...The visual effects were subdued and effective, as you've mentioned spence.

The best thing about Kaufman films is how they leave you with images in your head. I'm still thinking about that movie a week later, where if I went to see Hellboy (which were going to see that night) I would've totally not cared. This movie is what more films should aspire to be. :)

I just returned from this movie and I was amazed. You know that feeling you get when you just saw a truly great film so that you were glued to your seat in awe, even when it was over? I get that feeling sometimes, at Gangs of New York, Mystic River, and now Eternal Sunshine is added to the list. Visually, it was almost overload. So much is hapening all at once and you have to look close to catch it all. There was never a dull moment in this film, which isn't all visual because there is a really interesting and intriguing love story going on throughout the film. Jim Carrey's performance was incredible. You know how Adam Sandler tried to be in the serious film "Punch Drunk Love"? To me, I didn't think his attempt was successful, since it's impossible to take him serioulsy. He's a type-cast actor, any film you see him in that he's trying to be serious in all you see is Happy Gilmore or Billy Madsion during a serious scene. With Carrey this is not the case. He is excellent in dramatic roles like in The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine. Kate Winslet was a very quirky and interesting character that seemed to always be wearing blue or red/orange. Writer Charie Kaufman is proved as a TRUE GENIUS. With "Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation" and now this, he has a string of 3 brilliant films that just keep getting better. His films are always totally unique and brilliant. Also, I'm really beginning to trust distributor Focus Features. They have many great films under their name, like Eternal Sunshine, Lost in Translation and (I think) 21 Grams. While they have a few duds (They, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) their successes make up for that and more. I reccomend this film to everyone. Time flies by as you watch it and you wil not be bored, I guarantee it. I would rate this film a 9 out of 10 on the DVDTown scale.

I finally saw it today, and I don't see why there is so much fuss about it. While technically accomplished, the movie took too much time to make very ephemeral points about memory, self, and remembrance. This could've worked as a 45-minute or 60-minute short, but as a feature, it was sunk by a very long, very laborious middle that repeated itself over and over and over...