Eternal Sunshine
Mar. 20th, 2004 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetTonight Jason and I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and both of us enjoyed it very much.
The cast was very strong. Jim Carrey turns in a positively muted performance as Joel, with almost none of his trademark mugging (although I bet the gag reel from this film would be very funny). Kate Winslet is Clementine, a marvelously down-to-earth flake. As she says repeatedly, she's just a fucked up girl trying to find her own peace of mind. The supporting cast (Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and--welcome back from Middle Earth--Elijah Wood) are more cartoonishly drawn, but consistently so.
The movie is all about memory. Clementine and Joel have spent two years descending into misery together and after she decides to have him wiped from her memory in an effort to move on, he retaliates by following suit. Hijinks ensue. Truths are revealed. Questions are raised. Once again Charles Kaufman has written a script to surprise, intrigue, amuse and fascinate.
I think that's the strongest aspect of the movie--it provides plenty of grist for the mental mill. Here's another movie examining the role memory plays in our lives and relationships. Would you give up your memories to be released from the pain? Can we escape our own habitrails without the lessons we learn in pain? How do you allow yourself to be vulnerable to another person when you know they may hurt you, have hurt you, will hurt you?
My favorite section of the movie involves the characters running around inside Joel's mind as his mental Taj Clementine crumbles. At one point he tries to hide the memory of her inside other memories, where she doesn't belong, memories of childhood, of adolescence, of humiliation. I once said to Jason that part of why I enjoy sharing with him the places and people and stories of the times before we met is that now that I have finally found him, I want him to have been with me always. This might be the best visualization of that idea that I will ever see.
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is not without clouds, but its flaws are human and endearing. If this is the best movie I see in 2004, it won't be a bad year.
The cast was very strong. Jim Carrey turns in a positively muted performance as Joel, with almost none of his trademark mugging (although I bet the gag reel from this film would be very funny). Kate Winslet is Clementine, a marvelously down-to-earth flake. As she says repeatedly, she's just a fucked up girl trying to find her own peace of mind. The supporting cast (Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and--welcome back from Middle Earth--Elijah Wood) are more cartoonishly drawn, but consistently so.
The movie is all about memory. Clementine and Joel have spent two years descending into misery together and after she decides to have him wiped from her memory in an effort to move on, he retaliates by following suit. Hijinks ensue. Truths are revealed. Questions are raised. Once again Charles Kaufman has written a script to surprise, intrigue, amuse and fascinate.
I think that's the strongest aspect of the movie--it provides plenty of grist for the mental mill. Here's another movie examining the role memory plays in our lives and relationships. Would you give up your memories to be released from the pain? Can we escape our own habitrails without the lessons we learn in pain? How do you allow yourself to be vulnerable to another person when you know they may hurt you, have hurt you, will hurt you?
My favorite section of the movie involves the characters running around inside Joel's mind as his mental Taj Clementine crumbles. At one point he tries to hide the memory of her inside other memories, where she doesn't belong, memories of childhood, of adolescence, of humiliation. I once said to Jason that part of why I enjoy sharing with him the places and people and stories of the times before we met is that now that I have finally found him, I want him to have been with me always. This might be the best visualization of that idea that I will ever see.
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is not without clouds, but its flaws are human and endearing. If this is the best movie I see in 2004, it won't be a bad year.
