Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind DVD > Reviews > NOT QUITE SPOTLESS IN MY MIND

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Clever, original idea, competent performances
Disadvantages:	A few flaws in the plot, too much focus on not a lot happening

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are amongst my least favourite actors, but their latest film, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, had received such critical acclaim that I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt just to see whether the film merited the glowing reviews I had read on the subject. The subject matter, a couple who undergo a procedure to erase each other from their minds after the breakdown of a two year relationship certainly sounded promising, and the sort of thought-provoking topic that I enjoy. But does it really merit the praise it has received?

As the film opens, we see a couple, Clementine (Winslet) and Joel (Carrey) meeting for the first time on a train. They do not know each other, but are strangely drawn together. Then the story flashes to their break up. Their relationship has deteriorated and they argue constantly and seem to have little in common any more. The last straw comes when Joel insults Clementine and she walks out on him.

A few days later, and Joel is determined to make amends. He goes to visit Clementine at work, but is astonished when she completely ignores him and is already involved with another man.

Over drinks that night, his friends Carrie and Rob take the agonising decision to tell him the truth: Clementine has undergone a procedure to have Joel erased from her mind. She no longer remembers him, or anything about their relationship, and all their mutual friends have received a card in the post telling them never to mention Joel to her again.

Joel is so shocked and angry that he too decides to have the procedure in order to get over Clementine. He goes to see Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) and is told how the procedure will be performed. Joel will be visited in the night at his own apartment and all memories of Clementine will be permanently erased from his mind. He will then wake up in his own bed, none the wiser as to what has happened, and can begin a new life, free of the painful memories.

Joel decides to go ahead, and he receives a nocturnal visit from Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) who start to perform the erasing procedure on him. But something goes wrong: the memories seem not to want to go, and the portions of his mind mapped out beforehand no longer seem to house the memories, which are instead moving to different parts of his mind.

Now, through flashbacks, we see Joel’s memories of his once happy relationship with Clementine, as he tries desperately to hold on to them by pushing them to the deepest, darkest recesses of his mind…

I did enjoy the film, and the concept proved to be as interesting and thought provoking as I had envisaged. However, I felt that the movie dragged in places, as there was really little storyline other than what can be described in a few paragraphs, right up until the very end where a surprising turn of events (which, for me, did not have enough time devoted to it) changes things for Joel and Clementine. The vast majority of the film was taken up with Joel’s flashbacks, sometimes true to life and sometimes distorted by his efforts to hold on to them, and really it seemed like an excuse to exercise various special effects. By the second or third flashback we had already got the idea of what was going on, and the vast majority were not necessary to the plot.

As for the performances, I was pleasantly surprised by Kate Winslet, although admittedly it is her real persona, rather than her acting, that I find irritating. She manages a flawless American accent throughout the film, and it makes a change to see her playing a quirky role like Clementine. Fans of Jim Carrey’s comedy performances will be disappointed, as there is little humour here (although there are a few laughs to be had from a flashback that sees an adult Joel sent back to childhood situations). For me, the lack of silly comic performance was a blessed relief, but I felt that he was almost acting TOO straight, and his character lacked the passion and enthusiasm that I felt sure would have been necessary for the relationship that he was supposed to have enjoyed with Clementine. Indeed, the two seemed ill-matched at times, and I couldn’t help but keep noticing a striking (and unflattering) resemblance between an unshaven Carrey and Roy Cropper from Coronation Street. I have to admit to preferring his straight performance in “The Truman Show” to this one. The actors’ lack of chemistry made them much more believable as a bickering couple, worn down by two years spent together, than as the happy, carefree couple they are supposed to be throughout most of Joel’s memories, so I suppose in this respect they still worked well together.

There is an excellent supporting performance from Kirsten Dunst, who plays Mary, the receptionist at Lacuna Inc, the company responsible for performing the mind-erasing procedure. Mary is also Stan’s girlfriend, and ends up being present at Joel’s procedure, and getting involved in a way that I had not predicted.

All in all, this is definitely not a bad film. It is a clever concept with some good special effects and competent performances from most of the cast. However, I felt that more could have been done with the story and it is a shame that the possibilities and implications of having your memories erased were not explored a little more, rather than the main focus of much of the film being on the special effects of Clementine disappearing from Joel’s mind. As it was, there were a number of flaws in the plot and the majority of the central section of the film became tedious, leaving me fidgeting in my seat and consulting my watch a couple of times. Indeed, the film is by no means one of the longest I have seen, clocking in at 108 minutes, but the lack of action moving the plot along made it feel like it was a lot longer.

Perhaps my slight disappointment with the film did result from the amount to which it had been built up in my mind by all the reviews I had read, one of which described it as “a masterpiece”, so if you have not read any of these such reviews, please do not let mine put you off, as it is still a good film and is definitely worth seeing – but I personally would not rate it as a masterpiece!

I think that the story will appeal to most people. It is admittedly a romantic story, but it is not by any means sickly sweet. I would say, however, that if you struggle with concentrating on films that jump around in terms of the time period in which different scenes are set, or which jump from reality to fantasy sequences and somewhere in between, then you may find this difficult to follow, so a degree of concentration is admittedly required!

A couple of interesting facts about the movie are that the title comes from a quote from Alexander Pope, and the opening credits do not appear until nearly 20 minutes into the film. They will no doubt take you by surprise, as they did me, as by then I was immersed in the story and my mind must have assumed that they had already passed without my notice!

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is currently on release at cinemas nationwide.