Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

(Yup, the pictures still aren't working. Goddamnit.)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Directed by: Michel Gondry
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood

I remember when my dad and brother saw this when it came out. I saw something else at the same time, but I can't remember what. Anyway, they said it was very confusing, and so it didn't really appeal to me much, until recently. Funnily enough, my brother also said Harry Potter was confusing the first time he read it, when he was like nine and I was about six. I then decided I wouldn't read it. Ha. First impressions can be decieving.

Anyways, due to the whole mum-Bafta thing we have had Eternal Sunshine in our DVD collection for quite sometime, but I never got round to seeing it. After talking to a couple of friends who had seen it and loved it, I watched it with my cousin and her boyfriend who were staying with us.

I think, because I had heard it was so confusing, I was really prepared and I was completely alert to try and understand it. It wasn't as confusing as I had expected actually. Oh, first I should do the plot thing. That's going to be tricky.

OK, well, two people undergo a memory wiping procedure to erase each other from their memories, but, to quote IMDb, 'is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with'. That's pretty much all I can say. The movie skips around a lot, between the people performing the procedure and Joel's memories with Clementine.

The performances are all amazing. Jim Carrey should stop doing Jim Carrey-like roles and start doing more stuff like this. He's very talented. Kate Winslet (with a brilliant American accent) is also amazing. Basically, all the cast were perfect. Well done to Kirsten Dunst for doing a supporting role like this. It would be easy for someone of her fame to just do leads in fluffy romcoms, and this was a clever choice, I think.

What the script for this film must have been like to read, I have no idea. And it would have been so hard to edit! The creators really did a good job.

Oh God, I know this is a really crap review and I'm sorry. It's a difficult film to write about. You just have to see it. It is VERY weird at times and is quite complicated, but it's an amazing piece of work. So I'm going to let the film speak for itself and I will shut up now.

A

Talliestar

[Clementine and Joel have broken into an empty house on the Montauk beach]
Joel: I think we should go.
Clementine: No, it's our house! Just tonight... [she looks at an envelope on the counter] ...we're David and Ruth Laskin. Which one do you want to be? I'd like to be Ruth, but I can be flexible.