A smart yet engaging romantic comedy. Review on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Movie

One of the best written and shot romantic comedies this year starring Jim Carrey, I'd a chance to view it this week and boy I was surprised how I missed this one. During the course of our lives, we undergo various events good and bad. If you face a stressful event like a bad breakup, given the option would you erase the memory of the entire relationship?

Ladies and Gentlemen, that's the theme of this film. Filmed by Michael Gondry on a Charlie Kaufmanscript. What Charlie didn't die? Nope that was his ''twin'' in Adaptation :). For those who haven't seen a Charlie Kaufman film, check out Being John Malkovich or Human Nature or Adaptation. Simply said, he's one of the most talented screenplay writers today. Why is that so important? Because, rather than being bombarded with films that are either Sequels or Comic book characters or have mindless special effects, CK's works often center around a more complex object, the human mind and its emotions. His films are witty and comic while being sarcastic of the current world and smart.

The Cast

The Plot

The film begins with a bunch of overlapping sequences with Joel(Jim Carrey) and Clementine(Kate Winslet), meeting, breaking up, falling in love, moving away. The film follows a labyrinth type story telling, of events that do not happen successively. To put it in a sequence, here it how it goes:

Joel and Clementine meet at the chilly Montauk beach on a regular day. Over a period of time they fall in love. Clementine with her dashingly dyed hair( bright colors of orange, blue etc) is an extroverted librarian, leading a carefree life. Joel is an emotional person leading a rather sheltered life but more to the introverted side and maintains journals of his personal life. As do regular people in love do, they have fights over their relationship and break up. Joel comes to know shockingly that Clementine has undergone a medical procedure to remove all memories of Joel and their relationship. In spite and to get even, Joel goes to Dr.Mierzwiak(Tom Wilkinson in a terrific role) to get the procedure done to erase all memories of his relationship with Clementine. The procedure is performed at Joel's house, while he's unconscious, by the Doctor's assistants the geeky Stan(the competent Mark Ruffalo) and slimy Patrick(Elijah Wood of LOTR fame).

Sometime during the procedure of removing the memories Joel realizes that he actually still loves Clementine and doesn't want to lose her from his memory. He also comes to know that Patrick loves Clementine and has been using Joel's ideas to woo her. So he tries to hide her memory in obscure places like his childhood, where she never was. Things take a drastic turn when Stan's girlfriend Mary(Kirsten Dunst) and Dr.Howard turn up at Joel's place.

My Take

The film moves like an ocean, through multiple levels, through time, the present and past of Joel and Clementine. Also more importantly Joel working through his memories in his mind, trying to save the memories of Clementine.

For a film with a demanding screenplay to work, you need a director capable of bringing it to life and more importantly actors capable of essaying the roles based on circumstance. Like in the memory, Clementine has to act like a memory than a real person with thought. However what makes this film work is the romantic chemistry between Carrey and Kate Winslet. They are given enough meat to develop their characters and the emotional dialogues to express them and make the entire film realistic. The premise is very simple though, sometimes memories are all that we have and are often precious.

Jim Carrey has succeeded in pulling off the best dramatic role of his career. As the complex yet introverted Joel he struggles to let go of the past and yet tries to save his memories of Clementine while they are being erased.

He asks the doctor if the procedure is similar to brain damage. The doctor in a very avuncular tone, replies,

''Technically this is brain damage.''

Carrey's emotions in the car after the breakup and in the memory running away are very powerful. The climax scene in his memory where he has lost all but one of his memories of Clementine is real touching.

Kate Winslet, in a very different role as the boisterous Clementine is engaging as the romantic foil to Jim Carrey. With her garish costumes and wildly colorful Orange hair, she really stands out.

Most of her role is in the mind of Jim Carrey and she tries to ''help'' him save her memories.

Elijah Wood as the slimy Patrick in a grey role is terrific. He falls in love with Clementine during her memory erase and uses Joel's lines and gifts to woo her. The scene where Joel realizes this and tries to explain it to Clementine in his memory is priceless.

Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst are the technicians working on Joel erasing his memory when they run into problems and need Dr.Howards help. But there is a complication between them.

Final Words

Its very tough and heartbreaking love affair. But if you've invested so much would you be willing to erase it completely to get over it?