Thank God for Charlie Kaufman. Usually, a handful of intelligent, original, daring and, most importantly, good independent movies are released each year. However, it is hard to find an at least semi-widely distributed Hollywood movie, starring big name actors, sharing all of those characteristics, especially since the Cohen brothers and Kevin Smith seem to have lost their edge. But writer Charlie Kaufman has delivered with Being John Malkovich (****), Adaptation (***˝) and now Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Eternal Sunshine tells the story of Joel Barrish’s (Jim Carey) decision to remove all memory of his ex-girlfriend (Kate Winslet), but a number of other stories creep in over the course of the movie. It starts slowly and after about fifteen minutes I was worried that it was going to be a “smart” but boring movie. However, showing a patience that is nearly non-existent in movies these days, the story slowly builds to a crescendo. There are few wasted scenes and the peripheral characters become increasingly relevant, in an almost Dickensian fashion of interconnectedness, as the full story unfolds. This is a very effective style of storytelling and I wish more movies employed it. But, alas, it appears Hollywood does not think the modern moviegoer has such patience.
The acting is phenomenal. Jim Carey is excellent and surprisingly effective playing a non-comedic, somewhat mousy character and Kate Winslet also delivers a strong performance as Clementine. The supporting cast is also great, including Tom Wilkinson, a nerdy looking Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood (without any close-ups of his eyes) and Kirsten Dunst, who is excellent as always (and as an added bonus we get a scene with her in her skivvies jumping up and down on a bed – and it doesn’t even seem gratuitous).
The story is interesting, funny, sad, heart tugging and uplifting at various different times. However, I did feel that there was more there that could have been mined, which is why Eternal Sunshine ultimately gets the (***˝) rating rather than the elusive four stars. Also, the final twist, while good, unfortunately also made the actual ending a little forced.
We need more movies like this, but the marketing for Eternal Sunshine has been unimpressive. I had no desire to see this movie after seeing the previews and didn’t change my mind until I learned it was written by Charlie Kaufman and saw its 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While I do think a better job could have been done marketing Eternal Sunshine, it is an unfortunate reality that it is much easier to market a formulaic, overly simplistic piece of crap than a complex and original movie. Eternal Sunshine is only on pace to make about $35 million. I encourage everyone to vote with their feet and then spread the word – unless of course you only like formulaic crap.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ([img]"http://sobek.colorado.edu/GIF/STARS/or_star.gif"[/img][
