Friday, December 13

Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Length: 1 hr. & 48 minutes
Released: 2004
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy, & Science Fiction
Rating: R - language, drug use, and sexual content
Directed By: Michael Gondry (Written by Mr. Kaufman)

Where I Got It: My shelf (Boyfriend owns a copy, yayy me!)

SUMMARY:
Joel Barish is a man who is informed that his ex-girlfriend Clementine has had her memories of their relationship erased from her brain via an experimental procedure performed by Dr. Mierzwiak. Not to be outdone, Joel decides to have the same procedure done to himself. As Mierzwiak's bumbling underlings Stan and Patrick perform the operation on Joel -- over the course of an evening, in his apartment -- Joel struggles in his own mind to save the memories of Clementine from being deleted


TRAILER:




CAST:
Joel Barish - Jim Carrey
Clementine Kruczynski - Kate Winslet
Mary - Kirsten Dunst
Dr. Mierzwiak - Tom Wilkinson
Patrick - Elijah Wood
Stan - Mark Ruffalo

REVIEW:
This would have to be about the third time I've watched this. The best part of it, was that it was a class assignment to watch this movie. It was the final piece to watch (and read, we had to read the screenplay as well). Boyfriend adores this movie, so he had no issue watching this with me for homework.

Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Gondry are geniuses. This was a brilliant film and I'm so glad its finally getting some major appreciation, because when it first came out no one had even heard of this movie. I wasn't allowed to watch it when it did come out do the R rating. Sighs. However, the wait for worth it. It's such a good movie. It's so heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time. It makes you really realize that the bad memories are bad, but they are worth it, because of the good memories. You can't have the good without the bad. The bad makes you appreciate the good memories even more. A certain song comes to mind as a I write this review, "Daylight" by Maroon 5. 




It fits the movie pretty darn well.

But the plotting was amazing. Mr. Kaufman took the A-typical boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-but-boy-wins-girl-back story and made it something seriously different and original. A hint to watching this movie...look at Clem's hair. Her hair helps you piece together what scene belongs where. It's all scrambled up, but by the end everything makes sense. 

The actors were great. It was such a good cast with such big names. How the hell did this not get an Oscar? Really? But, yes, they all did wonderful. The chemistry between Clem and Joel was good. The dialogue was brilliant. 

I really could go on and on about this film, but I shall stop my ramblings. 

In the end, I simple adore this film. It is a brilliant and amazing film. The actors were fantastic and the plotting device perfect to sharing this story. I loved the ending. It was perfect as well. I would recommend this to those who love romances, but with a twist. This is not just a love story, but its a human story. There is a major lesson that should be learned from watching this. I have many bad memories myself, but I would never erase them, because they allow me to be who I am and it allows me to appreciate the good memories even more. Out of 5 stars I shall stamp this with 5 stars. ^.^

Favorite Character(s): Joel, Clem, Stan, and Mary
Not-so Favorite Character(s): Patrick (I love the actor, but his character was a creeper and a pervert. Tsk). 
Favorite Quote(s): Clem: Too many guys think I'm a concept, or I complete them, or I'm gonna make them alive. But I'm just a fucked-up girl who's lookin' for my own peace of mind; don't assign me yours.