'We Can Forget It For You Wholesale'
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

RATING: A

Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo. Elijah Wood and Tom Wilkinson. Casting by Jeanne McCarthy, Costume Designer Melissa Toth, Music by Jon Brion, Editor Valdis Oskarsdottir, Production Designer Dan Leigh, Director of Photography Ellen Kuras, Executive Producers David Bushell, Charlie Kaufman, Glenn Williamson, Georges Bermann, Produced by Steve Golin and Anthony Bregman, Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth, Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, Directed by Michel Gondry.

Rated R, Running Time 103 mins. 1.85:1 Academy Standard Aspect Ratio.

Most moviegoers are probably unfamiliar with Charlie Kaufman but not the pictures he's written. Kaufman is the talent who penned such wonderfully rich films as "Adaptation", "Being John Malkovich", "Human Nature" and the adaptation of Chuck Barris's biography "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." He's one of the smartest and under appreciated writers today and by re-teaming with "Human Nature" director Michel Gondry has managed to craft the first great film of the year with undoubtedly the best performance of Jim Carrey's career. What's this you ask, another Jim Carrey comedy? There are indeed humorous moments within the new film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", but if you're looking for the rubber faced comic presence that America has embraced (to degrees of absurdity) then you're in the wrong place. Carrey once again proves his talent and superiority as a dramatic actor in this wonderful film that is best described as a sci-fi / fantasy / fairytale of romance, heartbreak and oh yeah, that crazy thing called love.

Carrey stars as Joel Barrish an average New Yorker who on the spur of the moment decides to call in sick to his dead end job one morning. Instead of taking the train to the city Joel hops on one in the opposite direction and finds himself on a snow covered beach in Montauk. Confused by his impulse, Joel heads back home and encounters a voracious blue-haired beauty in the form of Clementine (Kate Winslet). Her free spirit and inability to take no for an answer intrigues the mild mannered Joel and the two of them find themselves spending the day together. What they both don't know is that they've been down this road before. Joel and Clementine were involved in a 2-year relationship that ended so disastrous that the two of them elected to have their memories of each other erased.

Confused? Well, it seems that the night before their meeting Joel hired the services of Lacuna Inc., a medical enterprise that can erase the painful memory of a lost loved one or failed relationship. Discovering that Clemetine had the procedure done after seeing a T.V. ad, Joel calls upon Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) and his associates to ease his pain. He will gather up any items in his apartment that were left over from the relationship and bring them to Lacuna where they will test his emotional responses while pinpointing the areas of his brain that react. While he sleeps that night a medical team will hook him up to a crude device that looks like a colander and erase the marked areas of his brain. He'll wake up with a slight hangover and no memory of Clementine, or his visit to Lacuna. Of course a procedure as crude as this isn't without its share of problems as Lacuna teaches Mary (Kirsten Dunst), Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) engage in a small party in Joel's apartment while he sleeps in bed and has his memories wiped. But the real joy of the film is not what's going on in the real world but inside Joel's mind as he discovers that maybe erasing Clementine was not such a good idea after all.

The film's title comes from a line by Alexander Pope and its a wonderful reference and example of the intelligence of the material and the talent of Kaufman and Gondry. Gondry is best known for his work on music videos for Sinead O'Connor, The White Stripes, Radiohead and Bjork (recently released on DVD in a collection which I highly recommend) and displays a musicality within his direction. When I say musicality I’m not referring to the films beautiful eclectic score by P.T. Anderson collaborator Jon Brion nor the wonderful song by Beck titled "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes." I’m talking about the lyrical sense of the films structure. Gondry shows us that great storytelling doesn't have to be linear and by filling the film with heart and great attention to detail we're able to figure out the elliptical story for ourselves.

So many features today use CGI to dazzle the audience and distract them from a mediocre or non-existent story. Gondry uses the technology to aid the storytelling to such a degree that it’s barely noticeable. It works on a subconscious level and I'm sure much more can be picked up from repeat viewings. As Joel visits situations involving Clementine from his memory the setting begins to fade, details start to disappear and literally fall apart before our eyes. The VW beetle that they shared, titles of books within a bookstore and the house where they shared their first date all begin to crumble and vaporize in the background as Joel's memories are wiped away. Realizing that he needs the good moments of his life with Clementine Joel tries to protect the version of her that he interacts with in his mind by hiding her in an area she never existed: his childhood.

In the real world Patrick is attempting to woo Clementine with words once spoken to her by Joel and the knowledge of her previous erased relationship. But Clementine herself is looking for something more, unaware that as a side effect of the procedure the missing piece of her life was something she elected to have erased: Joel. Dunst, Wilkinson, Ruffalo and Wood are all peripheral characters, but they each leave an impression as flawed individuals trying to make sense of their own lives while unintentionally destroying those of others.

Carrey's pitch-perfect performance as Joel is the greatest of his career. He wears his heart on his sleeve and exposes himself, seeming like a small timid guy instead of the tall and lanky rubber-faced comic we're familiar with. Winslet has the task of playing two roles, the real Clementine and Joel's interpretation of her that exist solely in his mind. The real Clementine is unapologetic for her nature: "I'm just a f**ked-up girl looking for her own peace of mind." Its a treat to see two wonderful actors bring a pair of fully realized characters to the screen, showing us their humanity and flaws as they display their affection, hate and frustrations with one another. Their dimension services this story of how our memories make up our lives and that no matter how much we want to deny the agony we need it as much as the ecstasy.