Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
March 19, 2004; Loews Boston Common #18
* * * 3/4 (out of 4)
I admit, I went into this movie really, really wanting to like it. I’ve always liked Jim Carrey – I suppose I basically grew up with him as one of the great comics of my age, Ace Ventura on up. Also, I had recently watched Being John Malkovich, so I was very much in the mood for more of Charlie Kaufman at his best. I am most pleased to say without hesitation that Kaufman, Carrey, Kate Winslet, and nearly everyone else involved here took my expectations, ripped them to shreds, burned the shred, replaced my expectations with better ones, and succeeded well beyond my new ones.
Though I really don’t want to give away any of the plot, the basic gist is this. Joel (Carrey) is devastated when he discovers his recently-exed girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has completed a procedure which moved any reminder of him from her memory. Rather than wallow in his own pity while she moves on, Joel opts for the same procedure to remove her from his mind. The catch is that during the process, Joel, now an active and dynamic participant in his own memories, begins to remember why he fell in love with Clementine in the first place, and begins searching desperately for a way to stop the procedure from the inside.
First, what will be the focus of a lot of discussion for this movie, Jim Carrey. This is, hands down, the best he has ever been. While in nearly all his other movies – the only exception that I can think of being The Majestic – he has moments where he blatantly goes for laughs; something in his character is written for a laugh, or he’ll break character to have a little Ace moment. There’s none of this here. Carrey is playing a straight lead. His Joel is a complete departure from anything Carrey has done before: he’s quiet, thoughtful, and terrified. Most impressive is how Carrey fully maintains the character even when playing a 4-year-old version of him. While that scene does give us the one classic Carrey rubber-faced man, that’s all there is: it’s just a face, and a believable one at that. That’s not to say there’s no humor – far from it. In this case, the humor is situational, mostly between Carrey and Winslet, with David Cross providing his share as well. The humor between the couple is fantastically real, and their romance is almost flawlessly developed – albeit backwards, as the story sometimes moves.
Winslet also borders on incredible. I admit I haven’t seen anything she’s been in since Titanic, and that hadn’t been something I regret. It is now. Her Clementine is more than sincere, and it interested me how these two were both playing the same type of character; Joel dealt with his fears and shortcomings by withdrawing from them, while Clementine overcompensated, creating two harshly different personalities from the same ideas, and they came off as completely different
The rest of the cast is present for good reasons, and they know it. David Cross and Jane Adams are excellent as Joel’s best friends, perfect foreshadows of everything Joel fears becoming in his relationship. Even Kirsten Dunst, whom I’ve had problems looking at since Spider-man’s last scene, handled Mary with grace and intelligence.
As always, Kaufman’s script is excellent; I think this easily surpasses both Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He has presented a number of issues, and does so subtly – pros and cons of technological alteration of nature, relationships, and self-discovery, to name a few. The only element I’m not sure about is that he never truly takes a stance on these issues, preferring instead to leave them wide open for interpretation. (Note: this is not to say his characters don’t take stances on these issues; that is certainly not the case. However, he does provide ample coverage of all sides of debate, particularly the technology aspect.) His writing is smart, and his romance, though presented a bit haphazardly as required by his gimmick, is sincere, convincing, and heartwarming.
My only issue lies in the shooting, and it’s not even a big issue at that. The film is shot almost entirely with handheld cameras, and perhaps digitally. At first, I truly thought the unsteady camera would be a hindrance, and I suppose if technical scrutiny is your cup of tea, it might be. For me, however, as soon as I got involved in the story, which came very quickly, the stylistic choices became a non-issue.
This was truly impressive. I’ve always expected Kaufman to make me think about his films after I see them, and this is no exception. The difference here is that it feels like the execution is better. His loose ends are all tied up; despite the wandering time in the film, I didn’t come out with any sense of confusion as to where the characters stood at the end of the day. This is an excellently written film with amazing performances backing it up. This is the best film of the year to this point.
March 19, 2004; Loews Boston Common #18
* * * 3/4 (out of 4)
I admit, I went into this movie really, really wanting to like it. I’ve always liked Jim Carrey – I suppose I basically grew up with him as one of the great comics of my age, Ace Ventura on up. Also, I had recently watched Being John Malkovich, so I was very much in the mood for more of Charlie Kaufman at his best. I am most pleased to say without hesitation that Kaufman, Carrey, Kate Winslet, and nearly everyone else involved here took my expectations, ripped them to shreds, burned the shred, replaced my expectations with better ones, and succeeded well beyond my new ones.
Though I really don’t want to give away any of the plot, the basic gist is this. Joel (Carrey) is devastated when he discovers his recently-exed girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has completed a procedure which moved any reminder of him from her memory. Rather than wallow in his own pity while she moves on, Joel opts for the same procedure to remove her from his mind. The catch is that during the process, Joel, now an active and dynamic participant in his own memories, begins to remember why he fell in love with Clementine in the first place, and begins searching desperately for a way to stop the procedure from the inside.
First, what will be the focus of a lot of discussion for this movie, Jim Carrey. This is, hands down, the best he has ever been. While in nearly all his other movies – the only exception that I can think of being The Majestic – he has moments where he blatantly goes for laughs; something in his character is written for a laugh, or he’ll break character to have a little Ace moment. There’s none of this here. Carrey is playing a straight lead. His Joel is a complete departure from anything Carrey has done before: he’s quiet, thoughtful, and terrified. Most impressive is how Carrey fully maintains the character even when playing a 4-year-old version of him. While that scene does give us the one classic Carrey rubber-faced man, that’s all there is: it’s just a face, and a believable one at that. That’s not to say there’s no humor – far from it. In this case, the humor is situational, mostly between Carrey and Winslet, with David Cross providing his share as well. The humor between the couple is fantastically real, and their romance is almost flawlessly developed – albeit backwards, as the story sometimes moves.
Winslet also borders on incredible. I admit I haven’t seen anything she’s been in since Titanic, and that hadn’t been something I regret. It is now. Her Clementine is more than sincere, and it interested me how these two were both playing the same type of character; Joel dealt with his fears and shortcomings by withdrawing from them, while Clementine overcompensated, creating two harshly different personalities from the same ideas, and they came off as completely different
The rest of the cast is present for good reasons, and they know it. David Cross and Jane Adams are excellent as Joel’s best friends, perfect foreshadows of everything Joel fears becoming in his relationship. Even Kirsten Dunst, whom I’ve had problems looking at since Spider-man’s last scene, handled Mary with grace and intelligence.
As always, Kaufman’s script is excellent; I think this easily surpasses both Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He has presented a number of issues, and does so subtly – pros and cons of technological alteration of nature, relationships, and self-discovery, to name a few. The only element I’m not sure about is that he never truly takes a stance on these issues, preferring instead to leave them wide open for interpretation. (Note: this is not to say his characters don’t take stances on these issues; that is certainly not the case. However, he does provide ample coverage of all sides of debate, particularly the technology aspect.) His writing is smart, and his romance, though presented a bit haphazardly as required by his gimmick, is sincere, convincing, and heartwarming.
My only issue lies in the shooting, and it’s not even a big issue at that. The film is shot almost entirely with handheld cameras, and perhaps digitally. At first, I truly thought the unsteady camera would be a hindrance, and I suppose if technical scrutiny is your cup of tea, it might be. For me, however, as soon as I got involved in the story, which came very quickly, the stylistic choices became a non-issue.
This was truly impressive. I’ve always expected Kaufman to make me think about his films after I see them, and this is no exception. The difference here is that it feels like the execution is better. His loose ends are all tied up; despite the wandering time in the film, I didn’t come out with any sense of confusion as to where the characters stood at the end of the day. This is an excellently written film with amazing performances backing it up. This is the best film of the year to this point.
posted by Matt S. at
1:36 AM
