Lotus666
06-08-09, 10:02 PM
Another TB "Rarity Review" - from 2004...
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind continues the excellent form of 2004 – following such high quality hits as Peter Pan, Lost in Translation, Kill Bill Volume 2 and Big Fish. It has depth in abundance, exquisite direction, fine performances and the best title for a movie in a long, long time.
Synopsis
The film’s fundamental plot is that Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) have a two year relationship, which finally comes to an abrupt stop with a heated argument and Clementine impulsively turning to Lacuna Inc. to selectively erase Joel from her memory. Not taking this very well at all, as fundamentally the man has no self-confidence, Joel jumps aboard the erasure bandwagon and asks to be spared his pain by undertaking the same procedure.
This procedure takes place in the clients’ home, during the night, under medicated slumber. Thus, when they awake nothing appears immediately amiss, and off they go to their normal life – minus every memory of the person they have had erased. Enter Stan and Patrick, who perform the procedure. Enter also Mary, who is Stan’s girlfriend and works in Lacuna Inc. as the principle receptionist.
Not withstanding this very interesting premise, the film really kicks into a higher gear as we see the erasure process taking place from Joel’s sleeping perspective. Reliving the memories of two years in reverse, we see the painful end, and are taken back to the joyous beginning. Quite soon into the procedure Joel realises that he’s being stripped of everything which made him happy in the first place and tries to evade the erasure by grabbing his memories and “heading for the hills” – inserting Clementine into memories where she doesn’t belong.
Along the way Joel can still make faint contact with the real world around him and realises that one of the people performing the procedure has not only swiped his girl after Clementine erased Joel from here existence, but is now using his memories in order to try and woo her. This part of Patrick is played by Elijah Wood, effectively as a loveless little runt with no squeak of attractiveness to women. A back story opens up where Clementine becomes very uneasy with someone using lines and actions erased from her past, and quickly suspects something is very, very wrong.
Joel’s spirited fight causes problems with the procedure, turning the routine and mundane into a very dangerous game. Stan, who leaves everything on auto-pilot, gets stoned with Mary whilst counting down the hours until completion – and is in no fit state to tackle these complications. Roused from his bed at the dead of night Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, owner of Lacuna Inc., has to come into action to complete the procedure successfully. This he manages to do successfully, but not before Mary has thrown herself at him – which we learn is a repeat of what happened previously but which Mary has no knowledge due to a selective memory erasure.
Emphasising the fundamental message of the film – without ones memories you are doomed to repeat your mistakes – Mary takes off to find and read her own file, which is sat buried in Howard’s desk. By this time morning has broken, and Howard and Stan only just clear Joel's apartment before he wakes up. Joel takes off for work, but feels impulsively drawn to head off to Montauk – as does Clementine – and we later find out this is where they met two years ago. Cunningly, this is the opening 10 minutes of the film – as it’s told in a non-linear fashion, Memento style.
Without the painful warnings of a previous relationship, history repeats itself and the reset button has been pressed – two years on. However, Mary has cleared her desk, the filing cabinets and mailed all the Lacuna Inc. patients with their details and an audio cassette with them pouring their heart out before the procedure. Joel and Clementine are knocked back 180 degrees by these revelations, as both manage to hear the other describing everything which went wrong, everything which hurt, and everything which the other found unattractive. This final twist isn’t spun out past its welcome and Joel and Clementine, pain written over both their faces, decide that they’ve been given a rare gift – a second chance.
Analysis
This film is as much a triumph for the director, Michel Gondry, as well as for the principle actors. The nature of the film is linearly distorted and there is some very, very clever imagery where the normal laws of the universe are suspended as we get taken on a rollercoaster through Joel’s memories. Past and present (and to us, the future) all get blurred together – but one which makes perfect sense as we enter the final act of the story. Told any other way, it wouldn’t have been half as effective.
Much has been made of Jim Carrey, and he’s certainly excellent as Joel, but more credit should be given to Kate Winslet as Clementine. Clem is an impulsive “****ed up girl looking for her own piece (!?) of mind”, and her personality is both wonderfully cheerful and tragically woeful at one and the same time. Remove Winslet from Clementine and the movie would have suffered immeasurably. Carrey almost plays the straight, everyday man to Winslet – and he does this very well. Sporting an appearance without makeup, we see your average Joe with a broken heart. He does get to have some fun whilst we scream through his memories, but this is not Ace Ventura – this is more like the weary, self-depeciation of Bill Murray.
A rollercoaster of a fine premise, a fine expansion of that premise, and finally a fine execution of that premise. All in all, this is a piece of celluloid which will become part of my DVD collection without a second thought.
Final Score: 10.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind continues the excellent form of 2004 – following such high quality hits as Peter Pan, Lost in Translation, Kill Bill Volume 2 and Big Fish. It has depth in abundance, exquisite direction, fine performances and the best title for a movie in a long, long time.
Synopsis
The film’s fundamental plot is that Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) have a two year relationship, which finally comes to an abrupt stop with a heated argument and Clementine impulsively turning to Lacuna Inc. to selectively erase Joel from her memory. Not taking this very well at all, as fundamentally the man has no self-confidence, Joel jumps aboard the erasure bandwagon and asks to be spared his pain by undertaking the same procedure.
This procedure takes place in the clients’ home, during the night, under medicated slumber. Thus, when they awake nothing appears immediately amiss, and off they go to their normal life – minus every memory of the person they have had erased. Enter Stan and Patrick, who perform the procedure. Enter also Mary, who is Stan’s girlfriend and works in Lacuna Inc. as the principle receptionist.
Not withstanding this very interesting premise, the film really kicks into a higher gear as we see the erasure process taking place from Joel’s sleeping perspective. Reliving the memories of two years in reverse, we see the painful end, and are taken back to the joyous beginning. Quite soon into the procedure Joel realises that he’s being stripped of everything which made him happy in the first place and tries to evade the erasure by grabbing his memories and “heading for the hills” – inserting Clementine into memories where she doesn’t belong.
Along the way Joel can still make faint contact with the real world around him and realises that one of the people performing the procedure has not only swiped his girl after Clementine erased Joel from here existence, but is now using his memories in order to try and woo her. This part of Patrick is played by Elijah Wood, effectively as a loveless little runt with no squeak of attractiveness to women. A back story opens up where Clementine becomes very uneasy with someone using lines and actions erased from her past, and quickly suspects something is very, very wrong.
Joel’s spirited fight causes problems with the procedure, turning the routine and mundane into a very dangerous game. Stan, who leaves everything on auto-pilot, gets stoned with Mary whilst counting down the hours until completion – and is in no fit state to tackle these complications. Roused from his bed at the dead of night Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, owner of Lacuna Inc., has to come into action to complete the procedure successfully. This he manages to do successfully, but not before Mary has thrown herself at him – which we learn is a repeat of what happened previously but which Mary has no knowledge due to a selective memory erasure.
Emphasising the fundamental message of the film – without ones memories you are doomed to repeat your mistakes – Mary takes off to find and read her own file, which is sat buried in Howard’s desk. By this time morning has broken, and Howard and Stan only just clear Joel's apartment before he wakes up. Joel takes off for work, but feels impulsively drawn to head off to Montauk – as does Clementine – and we later find out this is where they met two years ago. Cunningly, this is the opening 10 minutes of the film – as it’s told in a non-linear fashion, Memento style.
Without the painful warnings of a previous relationship, history repeats itself and the reset button has been pressed – two years on. However, Mary has cleared her desk, the filing cabinets and mailed all the Lacuna Inc. patients with their details and an audio cassette with them pouring their heart out before the procedure. Joel and Clementine are knocked back 180 degrees by these revelations, as both manage to hear the other describing everything which went wrong, everything which hurt, and everything which the other found unattractive. This final twist isn’t spun out past its welcome and Joel and Clementine, pain written over both their faces, decide that they’ve been given a rare gift – a second chance.
Analysis
This film is as much a triumph for the director, Michel Gondry, as well as for the principle actors. The nature of the film is linearly distorted and there is some very, very clever imagery where the normal laws of the universe are suspended as we get taken on a rollercoaster through Joel’s memories. Past and present (and to us, the future) all get blurred together – but one which makes perfect sense as we enter the final act of the story. Told any other way, it wouldn’t have been half as effective.
Much has been made of Jim Carrey, and he’s certainly excellent as Joel, but more credit should be given to Kate Winslet as Clementine. Clem is an impulsive “****ed up girl looking for her own piece (!?) of mind”, and her personality is both wonderfully cheerful and tragically woeful at one and the same time. Remove Winslet from Clementine and the movie would have suffered immeasurably. Carrey almost plays the straight, everyday man to Winslet – and he does this very well. Sporting an appearance without makeup, we see your average Joe with a broken heart. He does get to have some fun whilst we scream through his memories, but this is not Ace Ventura – this is more like the weary, self-depeciation of Bill Murray.
A rollercoaster of a fine premise, a fine expansion of that premise, and finally a fine execution of that premise. All in all, this is a piece of celluloid which will become part of my DVD collection without a second thought.
Final Score: 10.