Eric Du
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Movie Review
“How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;”
-Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard
What, exactly, is love? What characteristics distinguish between simply liking
something and loving it? What does it take to truly love someone? By modern
standards, love has become a somewhat vague term. There is no specific set of
guidelines one must follow in order to claim one’s love for another, nor are there
rules that dictate the circumstances under which love may occur. Many would agree,
however, on a basic, general definition of love something along the lines of the
following: love is the tender and heartwarming feelings of affection, the mutual
sense of trust, the intimate emotional bond shared between a couple. It is the fire
that, once kindled inside our hearts, may flicker through the hardships but never
truly go out.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a romantic fantasy film from 2004 starring
Jim Carrey (in one of the few serious movie roles he’s played), Kate Winslet, Kirsten
Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and Elijah Wood that wonderfully presents this theme in a
fresh, creative way. This critically acclaimed film was director Michael Gondry’s
second full-length feature, and was scripted by Charlie Kaufman. The result of
Gondry’s skillful manipulation of mise en scène and Kaufman’s accomplished
penmanship naturally turned out to be a magnificent and complex story of romance
that also incorporates elements of science fiction and makes heavy use of nonlinear
narration. These aspects make it difficult for one to definitively place this film under
one category or genre, and this leads me to my one piece of advice that any fan of
typical romantic flicks should consider before making the decision to watch it:
Eternal Sunshine is far from being just another generic romance where the
protagonist couple ends up living happily ever after. So if you’re expecting
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something simple and lighthearted like Wall-E or Juno, then think twice about
seeing this particular movie.
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet co-star in Eternal Sunshine as emotionally withdrawn
Joel Barish and colorful, lively, and energetic Clementine Kruczynski, respectively.
The film begins with the two meeting each other by coincidence on the train when
they realize that they are both heading to Montauk, New York. Though neither
knows at the time, they are former lovers, having recently been separated after each
had their memories of their relationship surgically removed.
When Joel discovers that Clementine had had her memories erased after their love
affair went sour, he decides to undergo the process as well. He goes to the New York
City firm called Lacuna, Inc., whose director, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom
Wilkinson), had developed a method of memory erasure that allows for the removal
of certain unwanted memories. The process takes place while the patient is asleep
and allows him/her to relieve the memories from most recent to oldest while they
are being deleted. Much of the movie then takes place from Joel’s viewpoint during
his reliving of these dreams. As the process eventually comes to an end and he
begins to witness the happier moments of his relationship, Joel struggles to preserve
some memory of Clementine as he realizes his true love for her. Meanwhile, during
separate but related story arcs occurring during the memory erasure, Patrick (Elijah
Wood), an assistant helping with the procedure, copies Joel’s moves to seduce
Clementine. Another side story also reveals a secret affair between Dr. Mierzwiak
and Lacuna’s receptionist, Mary (Kirsten Dunst), that led to Mary getting her
memories removed after the doctor’s wife found out.
Although this is one of the very few movie roles for which Jim Carrey doesn’t play
the goofy, comedic type of character that he is so well known for, he plays his part
extremely well. Considering the fact that the part he plays contrasts so heavily with
his previous movie personalities, this is an impressive feat. His on-screen exchanges
with Winslet are perfectly natural and believable to the audience, even in the face of
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their characters’ radically different dispositions. The dialogue between the two is
funny, quirky, and unique, all of which is no surprise considering the film’s taking of
the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Probably most impressive,
however, is Winslet’s flawless portrayal of possibly one of the most unique romance
movie characters of all time. Winslet truly demonstrates her acting ability by
maintaining several different personalities of the same person yet making it all seem
real and authentic; she seems to know Clementine, a trouble but carefree young
woman with an extremely distinctive nature much different from her own, inside
and out. The convincing, genuinely affectionate interactions between Joel and
Clementine really help set forth one of the movie’s themes of love: that even when
the fire has been temporarily extinguished, nothing will stop it from relighting itself
once more.