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Carrey plays Joel, a shy,
close-mouthed singleton. His life isn’t that interesting – until he meets
Clementine (Winslet). She is his complete opposite – foul mouthed, bad
tempered and impulsive. Joel and Clementine are in a seemingly happy relationship,
until one day Joel visits Clementine at work and finds that she has no
idea who he is. It turns out that after a two year relationship, she decided
to have him erased from her memory. To get back at her, Joel pays a visit
to the aptly named Lacuna Inc to do a little memory erasing of his own.
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
and director Michel Gondry have really outdone themselves with this film.
Lately romantic comedies have become repetitive and predictable which is
why this film is so fresh and exciting. It isn’t simple and doesn’t follow
the regular formula. The originality of this beautiful story will blow
you away. It is no wonder, therefore, that Eternal Sunshine was such a
successful film – it even out-grossed Kaufman’s previous films, Adaptation
and Being John Malkovich.
The film is told in a
different way to your usual love story and even questions people’s different
takes on reality. It is surreal but at the same time believable. Most of
the film takes place over one night in Joel’s head. We are shown the story
of Joel and Clementine’s romance via Joel’s memory as it is being erased,
starting with the most recent memories and working backwards to the day
they met. The way the memories are shown and how they are erased is very
innovative, especially as it doesn’t use any high tech special effects.
It is all done through camera work. That is what makes Gondry so different
to other directors – he is creative and doesn’t opt or computers when he
can do something himself.
Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind is a romantic comedy for anyone with a past they’d rather
forget. It shows that you can’t forget everything and you can’t help who
you fall in love with - some people are just meant to be together.
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