Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

How would you feel if you could erase the memory of someone from your past completely? Would it really be worth erasing all the good memories for the advantage of not having to remember the bad? And is there an advantage to erasing the memories of someone you loved if you end up falling for them all over again? These are a few questions posed to the viewers of this film, while they're interesting questions portrayed in an unique film it's 108 minutes I wouldn't sorely miss if erased from my mind.

Jim Carrey is Joel, a reserved fellow who stumbles upon his polar opposite Clementine (Kate Winslet) on a day when he decides to be spontaneous and skip work. Once introduced to the quirky Clementine the two seem to click in an odd sort of way, its clear Joel is obviously a little embarrassed by her abrupt manner, yet curious enough about her to not run away. Maybe it's the fact there's something familiar about her, maybe it's because it was only the day before that Joel had all types of memories of Clementine, memories he cherished but thought he would no longer be able to bear when he discovered Clementine and had all her memories of him erased.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a unique film, which is probably the main reason people seem to be in love with it. Unfortunately I'm not one of those people, but I did find it much more satisfying than the overrated bore-fest, Lost In Translation. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind had me for a while, as I sorted out the story and made sense of what exactly was going on. Then the film loses me as Joel progresses to have his memories of Clementine erased and begins to realize he wants to keep them after all. When I say it lost me, I mean I really didn't care. The relationship between the two main characters is a strange one, I felt no connection between them and therefore didn't care that their existence in each others mind was being erased. In fact the whole process began to bore me because the memories weren't that interesting anyways.

I understand the love for this film, it's definitely a new idea and an interesting storyline but that's about it. The film really isn't that funny so why it's listed as a comedy, even a romantic one, is a mystery to me. The film is more a dark comedy or drama, so don't be expecting a typical Jim Carrey film, if compared to one of Carrey's more dramatic roles, The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would be more dramatic than that and less amusing. The film is made up of an excellent cast of actors and a rare somewhat serious role which Jim Carrey has proven in the past he's capable of doing. Unfortunately with some rather forced character relations the emotional pull that the story kept attempting to tug at was ineffective. Overall, found the film to be interestingly artsy, and at an hour and forty-five minutes it seemed to unravel very slowly. If you’re a fan of the artsy films that try to pull at some form of the human emotion, however strangely it may try, then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is for you. It's an interesting experience, but not necessarily one I would want to sit through once again.

6/10