Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004): **** out of ****
Directed by Michel Gondry. Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood and Tom Wilkinson.
by Andy Keast
Over and over again while watching Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," I found myself nodding my head and smiling, identifying with the character of Joel Barish. He's played by Jim Carrey as a mousy but forthright man, a staple of the new Geek Cinema, the type who can be intimidated and so easily disappointed by the 21st Century. He's also intimidated by Clementine, who is played by Kate Winslet as one who hides behind hair dye and loud clothes, out of either ennui or insecurity or both. These characters harbor relationship trouble for each other, and this is a film that on one level is about people who would rather run from that trouble than face it.
The screenplay by Charlie Kaufman takes a (strangely) practical approach to an old Philip K. Dick-like idea of memory erasure. Joel walks into where Clementine works one day to discover that she doesn't recognize him at all. He later receives word that Clem, for whatever reason, has had her memory of him erased through an experimental procedure used by a psychiatrist, Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). In an act of revenge, Joel impetuously decides to return the favor. Through an inventive sequence of events, Mierzwiak's technicians Stan and Patrick (Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood) show up at Joel's apartment to complete the brainwash.
What follows is a film that is inventive, charming and funny. Inventive in that Gondry and Kaufman have mapped out Joel's memory as a carnival ride of happiness and regret. This is a movie of seemingly limitless imagination. It doesn't follow any rules but at the same time doesn't make any. Charming in that you believe in the characters, who make the film more accessible than any other film written by Kaufman. Funny in the way that the film treats the absurd as commonplace in everyday life -and not vice versa as most comedies do. For example, when Barish visits the brainwashing clinic for the first time, it's a cramped, lived-in office space (the waiting room is identical to the one at my dentist's office) and not a product of the futurisms you think of when you're told the words "science fiction."
The four other films penned by Kaufman I've enjoyed (both "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" were on my top ten lists for 1999 and 2002), but mostly as novelties. They were films had could not have been made in any conventional way. The average Kaufman screenplay maintains such a pitch of cynicism that I end up enjoying the novelty, and not relating to anything that happens. For one of his scripts to resonate with me, as this one did, is almost like discovering the writer anew. I dated a girl who was not dissimilar to Clementine: always "outgoing" for the sake of being outgoing, "different" only to be different. She was also frivolous and vindictive. It didn't work out, but if given the opportunity to burn my memory of her away perpetually, would I?
Michel Gondry has proven himself, I believe, with this film. His directing moves seamlessly through irony and absurdity, and gives us passages that capture that implacable excitement of meeting The New Person. His visual style projects the fragmented, bits-and-pieces way we catalog our memories, perhaps because in addition to being mental documents, they are also mental constructs. We recall only the things we care to, our way. Watching it, I was taken back to another relationship of mine, one that was very much like a marriage. I can recall the exact date, time and location we met. I can describe with perfect accuracy what we were both wearing, the topics of conversation and what the weather was like. *That* is what "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is all about.
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