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MOVIE CRITIQUE:
I realize that I am going against the crowd by not recommending this movie and, furthermore, by giving it a rather weak
grade. The fact that only a handful of the nation's movie critics have not recommended this film as evidenced by its very
high grade on the RottenTomatoes web site shows that I and the handful of other critics who panned this film are in a distinct
minority.
"The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is another mind game movie that represents a highly original concept
brought to the screen by Charlie Kaufman, and for this effort, at least, I am highly grateful. Better to shoot for the moon
and fail than never to try at all!
I will also be the first to admit that there is much to admire about this movie. The direction and the cinematography
are superb. The acting is more than good; it is great. Jim Carrey for the most part leaves behind his rubber faced comedic
ability in his portrayal of Joel Borish, a disheveled man who seems to be on the verge of losing his "true love"
Clementine Kruczinski, not once, but twice. For her part, Kate Winslet as Clementine plays her role of a society rebel and
free spirit to winsome perfection.
As for the Lacuna Corporation, Tom Wilkinson, as always, is wonderful as the amoral scientist and Kirsten Dunst plays
her adorable self once again as a young ingenue and his low level corporate employee.
Others at Lacuna include Mark Ruffalo, who plays to type as a low brow loser who happens to be even more disheveled than
Carrey's Borish. In short, he is an unkempt slob made to look even worse with drab, thickly lensed black eyeglasses. The guy
looks like he has never used a comb with a hair style that gives the impression that his last visit to a barber consisted
of his finger being stuck in an electrical outlet.
It's a small point, really, but I am awfully tired of seeing the grunge look in movies. Whatever happened to the movie
star glamour of yesteryear? Carrey looks clean shaven one minute and then an hour or two later in the story he is once again
sporting a two day growth of facial hair with a slovenly hair style to match.
And, finally, Elijah Wood, fresh from his "Lord of the Rings" starring role, strikes me is being quite miscast
in his role as Patrick, the Lacuna employee who surreptitiously steals Clementine's records in order to help him make a romantic
play for her. He may have saved the world in "LOTR," but here he lacks the maturity and the gravitas to appear convincing
as a romantic competitor to Jim Carrey.
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is doubtless the creative force behind this movie, because it thematically follows many of
his other movies to date. They are, for the most part, all mind games, as is this one.
"Being John Malkovich"(1999) is a brilliant movie that plays with the concept of a portal that allows members
of the star struck public to see the world through the eyes of John Malkovich. This is an inspired concept and this movie
carries that concept to brilliant fruition.
"Adaptation"(2002) developed the same concept of mental portals in a more low keyed approach about the conflict
between two brothers, both of whom are screenwriters. One cranks out potboilers like sausages and becomes rich in the process.
The other suffers the writer's death of a mental block in his futile efforts to write a screenplay about an orchid thief.
He finally achieves a level of success by channeling his mental energies into the personality of the female author of the
short story upon which the movie is to be based.
So, "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a quote lifted from a poem by Alexander Pope, is Kaufman's
newest probe into the nether world of mind games and mental instability. My fear might be that he must go further out on a
mental limb each time to come up with a new project, and that this movie represents the border line of the limits of these
kinds of movies. But who knows? Perhaps not.
My complaints with this movie, other than with the casting of Elijah Wood as Patrick, are twofold. The first is with the
basic story itself. I find the relationship between Barish and Kruczynski as one to be defined by the term "true love"
to be very frivolous and superficial.
These two are barely in their "meet cute" phase. They don't know each other. They don't know what each other
wants out of life. They are lovers and possible friends, but they haven't yet progressed to the level of even a deep friendship,
a level where trust and mutual respect is the cornerstone and the foundation of their relationship.
Well, how could they? If they had, then Clementine would never have run off to Lacuna to have her memory of Joel erased.
The single mature subject matter that is presented in the movie is when Clementine tells Joel that she wants to be a mother
by having his baby. Joel instinctively (and honestly) puts both her and this idea down as preposterous for someone who is
as immature as she is. She does not take this insult lightly and protests that she would be a good mother, but we in the audience
know better as this flighty girl does not seem to possess any common sense or any grounding in the realities of life.
These two emotional children are filmed in all sorts of romantic places, like running along the seashore, and we are supposed
to be convinced that this is true love. Not likely. They are in the fantasy phase, that initial phase of passion where the
other is perfect merely because their partner knows so little about them.
The imperfections that we all possess as humans have yet to show themselves with Joel and Clementine, and when they do,
she cuts and runs. This is most decidedly not the definition of true love in any relationship, much less this one.
In short, I am not at all convinced that these two are meant to be together, and that is not the thought that this movie
wishes to convey. Having been married for many years, I can assure you all that true love does not consist of a lover being
understanding because your sweetheart has crushed the side of your car against a fire hydrant or because she looks different
and cuter after she has dyed her hair a bright tangerine in color. True love is much more quiet and much less dramatic than
this movie would have you believe.
My second problem with "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is that much of the movie after Joel has
decided to follow Clementine in having his memory of her erased consists of him having regrets about his decision and then
making a dramatic mental effort to back out of this decision by fighting the computer that has been programmed to complete
the erasure process.
The movie ends up cutting back and forth from today's reality to memory of their shared past to a dream world that is
very nightmarish, especially when the dream world landscape all around them begins to dissolve from the onslaught of the computer
probes (Shades of "The Matrix!"). Their awareness of the computer probes that are searching for them to delete (kill)
them forces them to hide in the parts of Joel's brain where the computer probes are not programmed to look, like in the distant
past of his childhood.
While the filming and the concept of this is brilliant, the practical effect of this cutting back and forth is to leave
us in the audience suffering from a case of visual whiplash and more than a little confused as to what exactly is going on.
This is a great concept and done about as well as it could be, but it does nothing to advance the story or to help us understand
(or sympathize with) the characters.
Like the movie, it becomes a mind game, and, as a mind game, I am forced to view the movie from an intellectual standpoint,
which is from my mind, rather than viewing it from my heart and from an emotional standpoint as a story about lost love.
In summary, the intellectual demands of following this movie more or less obliterate the romantic message that the movie
is trying to convey.
There are masterful elements in this movie, but the flaws that it also possesses force me to accept the fact that some
of the parts prevent the sum of the parts from being considered a masterpiece.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Amnesia has been a common topic in movies. One of my favorite movies about amnesia and the loss of a loved one is "Random
Harvest"(1942), a movie in which an English industrialist, played by Ronald Colman, loses his memory in an accident and
his adoring wife, played by the incomparable Greer Garson, labors for years at his side as his personal secretary hoping against
hope for that flash of recognition that may never come. Now, THERE'S a romantic movie about true love and memory loss!
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MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is standing on the platform waiting for his train to arrive and take him to another day at work.
Across the station another train destined for the distant seaside suburb of Montauk is preparing to depart. Joel has a quick
change of heart about his nine-to-five job and he suddenly dashes down the steps and up the opposite stairway just in time
to make the train that will bring him out to meet his destiny.
This movie gives two differing version of how Joel meets Clementine. In the beginning, he is having lunch in a cafe and
she is sitting by herself at an adjacent table. She strikes up a conversation with Joel, a conversation that continues when
she later sees him riding the same train back to the city.
Later in the movie their meeting is presented as him sitting on steps leading to the ocean beach. He is admiring her standing
in the surf as she is wearing a bright orange pullover hooded sweatshirt. She spies him sitting by himself on the steps and
comes up and introduces herself by admitting that she also is not very good company in a crowd of strangers.
In both instances, Clementine is the pursuer and Joel is the pursued. They soon have a deep "meet cute" kind
of love in the romantic manner for which movies are famous.
Unfortunately, their relationship is not at all well established before she disappears out of his life without a trace
or even a goodbye "Dear Joel" letter. This is unfortunate because, as I have already stated, I was not yet convinced
of their being right for each other, and this is the plot point upon which this whole movie is hung.
Joel mopes around until one day by the greatest of coincidences he runs into Clementine working the sales counter at a
Barnes and Noble bookstore. He rushes up to her but is stopped cold by her icy look of non-recognition. He is totally lost
and frustrated by this turn of events, a horrible situation made worse by her playing "kissy face" with a fellow
employee right in front of him.
Joel is now lost as well as being mystified by this strange turn of events. The mystery, however, is later solved when
a family member gives him a letter sent to them from a company called "The Lacuna Corporation," advising them that
Clementine has had Joel erased from her memory. The letter goes on to ask them never again to mention her name to Joel.
Quicker than you can say, "Postage, please" Joel is in the seedy storefront office of Lacuna requesting the
same operation. Having known her, he thought he couldn't live without her, but taking this course of action promises to help
him live without her as his memories of Clementine will, he hopes, soon cease to exist.
Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) explains the procedure to Joel as his assistant, Stan (Mark Ruffalo), places the
gear on Joel's head. He is to bring everything that he associates with Clementine to the office. He then is to tell them everything
that he knows about her. Between these conversations and the exhibition of the sentimental artifacts, Dr. Mierzwiak can tell
by a brain scan which portions of Joel's brain are being stimulated by his memory of Clementine. This information is compiled
into a computer and Stan and Mary (Kirsten Dunst), another Lacuna employee, will later visit him at home and go through the
erasure procedure while he is sleeping so that he will have the security of waking up in his own bed in his own home.
What Dr. Mierzwiak doesn't know is that Stan and Mary are hot for each other and that they will use their evening at Joel's
apartment to do a little partying and drinking while Joel is undergoing the memory erasing procedure with a helmut placed
on his head while lying supine in his bed. Joel is assumed to be unconscious, but the sounds of Stan and Mary fooling around
remind his subconscious mind of his love for Clementine.
All of a sudden he decides that he doesn't want to lose her. He is conscious of the programming working its way through
his brain looking for memories of Clementine to erase. Joel decides that he must fight back by moving his memories of Clementine
to areas of his brain where she is not supposed to exist. It is all like a horrible nightmare. They're happy together and
then the dream world around them starts to disintegrate. Like fugitives on the lam from the law, they have to flee quickly
to another safe place.
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