Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind Review
Charlie Kaufman is a madman. I remember thinking this at 3 in the morning, about 50 minutes into this film, utterly baffled and delighted at what was going on. I was confused, I didn’t know what was going on, but for the first time ever, it felt like that was by design. Just like Jim Carrey on the screen, I was being dragged through this story, unsure of where it was going and disoriented by exactly where I was even supposed to be. And yet, even as I floundered through the story, I had the sense this was something powerful, unique and stirring. And I was right.
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind is a movie that I wish I could watch again, for the first time. It’s a film that dazzles and floors you with it’s realness, but also it’s magic, painting the wide dynamics of life in a way that makes it hard to unsee the grimness but also the beauty shows. It’s a movie about an extremely normal guy, Joel, who is in love with a very quirky and broken girl Clementine. It’s painfully common premise, one that doesn’t get enough movies and the bleak realness with which it is portrayed here, through the writing of Kauffman and the strong direction of French director Michael Gondry and the poignant and bare performances from Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
But like with any Kaufman script, there’s a twist. Something that lies just beyond real life that allows us to probe it. In his famous script Being John Malkovich, it’s the nature of the protagonist as living inside the head of John Malkovich. In Adaptation, it’s the the in your face self insert of the writer itself. In Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, it’s memory, specifically the erasure of memories. If you’ve had a bad relationship, a company can come in, collect all the things that remind you of that person, erase your memories and leave you good as new.
This is what happens between Joel and Clementine, both ways. The story is out of order and the way you learn this story isn’t completely clear and obvious. But that’s part of the charm of the film, charm I won’t spoil. The main action arc of this film is a nesting world dynamic. Joel is experiencing his own relationship again (in reverse), but this time with the meddling words and actions of the workers above him, changing and erasing the experiences of his life. And as he tries to escape the procedure, with his mind’s version of Clementine in tow, he ends up re-living some of his seminal, embarrassing memories. It’s tragic, urgent and surprisingly funny. Kaufman is such a creative writer that he just jams all these emotions and messages into every scene and Gondry, the director, conveys them perfectly with his quirky style.
It’s an inversion of how we know these actors. Kate Winslet’s Clementine is goofy, quirky and comedic. Jim Carrey’s Joel is forlorn, down on his luck and kind of boring. He’s entertaining not as a unique figure, but rather as this spectacle of the mundane. Meanwhile, Clementine, as much as she is a lover, is also a symbol of all the color and chance and spontaneity that Joel just doesn’t seem to run into in everyday life. As much as it’s about love, it’s also a reflection on getting older, approaching that perilous line between young and old that wavers and moves in your late 20s-early 30s.
But upstairs, outside the confines of Joel’s mind what is happening? Well, that’s a little simpler, but only mildly so. Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) are performing the procedure on Joel. While there, they invite over Mary (Kirsten Dunst). Mary is the receptionist and seems to have a thing with Stan. Mary is sweet. It’s a little weird how she always talks about their boss Howard (Tom Wilkinson). Patrick is worried about his current girlfriend (hint….no I won’t spoil). The whole time though, they aren’t giving their job the attention they should, which is when things really start to go haywire, both in the real world and in Joel’s head. It’s a well executed and cleverly crafted B story that keeps us grounded in the A story while moving us along.
Even for an artsy, hipster film, this movie has a lot going on. A lot of cuts, quick inserts, things you’ll miss if you’re not locked in. And it’s hard to feel like you’re locked in- about halfway through it sort of just clicks what’s going on. There’s dramatic shifts in tone and visuals across different scenes, with some shots feeling like they aren’t even of a real place. Meanwhile the grounded B story has a more gritty aesthetic that also feels different and when you combine the two, you end up with something that’s even more jarring. It’s not a bad thing. But it’s definitely different from any film I have seen previously.
I think this movie is one that, without it’s deep emotional core, almost doesn’t work. And it’s hard to describe an emotional core. I can say it, you can read it, but can you feel it? Not through a secondary source in most cases. And that’s part of what makes this film so hard to describe, the other part of it being the sheer complexity of this film minute to minute. But that’s also what makes it so powerful and unique. It’s dense, rich and elusive. No amount of words I write about this film could replace the experience of watching the film itself. And that’s not always the case.
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind is a beauty of a film. I’ve already told you how good it is, I’ve already sort of gestured at what it’s about. All I can say now is that I hope you take some time to watch it, give it a chance and just process it. It’s not an easy film to watch, but it’s more than worth having seen.
