Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind DVD > Reviews > Eternal Sunshine Review (film Only)

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	a different side of Jim Carrey
Disadvantages:	its a bit odd

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Movie:

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are the main characters in this Love story. Joel (Carrey) is shocked to find out that his girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) has had her memories of their rocky relationship erased from her memory using a new process that was invented by Dr Mierzwaik (Tom Wilkinson).

Joel decides (initially in spite) to have his own memories of Clementine erased too but as his memories are deleted from his mind he begins to remember his initial love and passion for Clementine, and tries to tuck the memories away in other parts of his brain, with the doctor and his some of his staff (Mark Ruffalo), chasing him throughout his mind to rid him of his memories it is clear that Joel cannot get Clementine out of his head.

Review:
My initial thoughts, before sitting down to watch this movie were; "I hope this isn't another typical Jim Carrey Movie" with lots of over exaggerated actions and the same old style of gags that we have seen in most of his movies since Ace Ventura.

I also thought what has the director Michel Gondry done before? And the answer to that is not much. He has done Pecan Pie and he has done some music videos for the Chemical Brothers, Bjork, Radiohead and the White Stripes So initially the movie track record of the director didn't fill me with confidence. I have not seen any of his films and so I couldn't comment on the actual direction involved.

The screen writer, Charlie Kaufman, has a reputation for movies with an element of the "weirdness factor" (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation). And so you feel that Eternal Sunshine may also play out the same way. So what did I think of the movie?

The film is a love story in reverse. You initially think that the film will pan out the same way as any other movie of this ilk, but after the opening credits on chapter 5 you see that this is a relationship that has finished bitterly and has left its emotional wreckage, in Joel at least, by the wayside.

Carrey in the role of the withdrawn Joel Barish has in my opinion totally surpassed himself, gone are the facial contortions and predictable gags and along comes an actor that has taken on a very different role, and succeeded with flying colours. He plays the part in a realistic, believable way and I felt the pain and anguish that he portrayed on screen.

Winslett as Clementine also has broken the "English rose" mould to which she is normally cast, as the unpredictable and often verbally violent love interest; I felt she grasped the fact that she was not cast in a period piece with both hands and that she enjoyed playing outside of her normal roles.

Mark Ruffalo pays the fairly geeky technician Stan that does the erasing of memories, he is also seeing Kirsten Duntz (Mary the receptionist) and are seen getting stoned and dancing around together, Elijah Wood (Patrick) shakes of his Frodo Baggins stereotype and plays an insecure lab assistant who tries to steal the women that come to Lacuna for his self.

Not wanting to go into too much detail about the film Clementine sees a TV Ad for Lacuna where Dr Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) has developed a process to erase unwanted memories, so she decides to have the memories of Joel and their stormy 2 year relationship erased from her mind, he in turn discovers what she has done and so turns to the Dr to have his memories of Clementine erased too.

After consultation Stan (Mark Ruffalo), and Patrick (Elijah Wood) spent the night at Joel's apartment, Joel is unconscious and hooked up to the erasing gear whilst they zap his memories, (and take liberties with his house), Mary (Kirsten Dunst) turns up, things go wrong and they need to call out Dr Mierzwiak to put things right, but Joel has decided he wants his memories and he tries to hide her within other areas of his Psyche, so begins a cat and mouse game between Joel and the Dr and his assistants.

The film give us a realistic view on how "real people" and "real relationships" work and not just glossed up Hollywood versions, it gives us insights on how our memories (both good and bad) of our relationships shape us and mould us into the people we are. Indeed on one of the supplements Jim Carrey says "Unless you've had your balls busted, you're no good to anyone with a script like this,"

I liked Michels Gondrys use of camera angles and lighting. Inside Joel's head the main light source seem to be a torch, and this gave a good anchor for knowing when we were in the memory sequences and when we were in the "real world", some of the scenes also came across as hand held which gave those sequences a documentary feel.

Overall:

Acting, extras and subject all above average, a good entertaining (if somewhat unusual) movie.

This review is written by me and all the words are my own, but I have posted them on multiple sites. I am involved with a site called Digital Lard and the full review for this (including Extras, picture and sound quality) can be found there, as can my other reviews. The address is http://www.digitallard.com if you want to check it out.