Watch the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
It’s more a collection of memories accessed at different points along the non-sequential narrative. Unlike Groundhog Day, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is not a repeat/until loop. or one of the staff (Patrick – Elijah Wood) stealing memories so he can swoop in and use them to seduce the patients’ ex-partners. Perhaps that’s down to the guy in charge (Dr Mierzwiak – Tom Wilkinson) being a bit of a tinker and using the process to cover up his previous indiscretions. I know it’s a work of fiction, but you do wonder what checks and balances are in place for what boils down to cerebral reorganisation. So, unsurprisingly, Joel starts having mid procedure wobbles and doesn’t want to lose all of the memories - perhaps just enough to make the pain stop. In fact there are times when it seems that the whole Meccano set is rattling around like peas in a drum. I think it’s fair to say that both Joel Barish (Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Winslet) have a screw or two loose. I have to admit to being a bit tempted by that idea… It’s been over fifty years, so why do I still blush from my toenails up when I remember some faux pas from my teens? Lacuna is a bit like an inverse of Rekall from Total Recall, in that they go in and remove specific memories, whereas Rekall puts new ones in. So, if there is something that is irritating you and you can’t stop thinking about it, they can just whip it out. is a company called Lacuna who specialises in removing selected memories. In brief, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is about a couple who have a falling out and wish to be done with each other. Ultimately, I don’t know why I didn’t see this when it came out in 2004. Also that was still nearly five years in the future. I’ll admit that I hated Be Kind Rewind, but that’s more than somewhat to do with Jack Black being in it. What about the director? I have no problem with French directors - my adoration of all things Bessonesque is well known - so I wouldn’t have avoided it due to it being made by Michel Gondry. Even Elijah Wood, who in my humble opinion has a permanent face like a slapped arse, is tolerable.
Throw in cracking performances by Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and Tom Wilkinson, and there’s really no reason why I shouldn’t have seen it.
Maybe it was Jim Carrey playing it straight? Again, no… The Truman Show is one of my all-time favourites. Oh… Heavenly Creatures and Peter Jackson, if you’re wondering. The only minor quibbles are Carrey's understated performance and a slightly lacklustre ending.Could it have been the sub-par cast? Nope! Any film with Kate Winslet in gets a watch: I remember watching her in the mid-nineties as a relative newcomer, in a film by a New Zealand-born film director who was starting to get established, and I’ve seen most things of hers since. This outing from Kaufman's oddball imagination is wonderfully intriguing, often touching and typically convoluted - he plays with chronology as effectively as Tarantino. During the lengthy pre-credit sequence, we see the couple meet on an empty, windswept beach, but, as this bizarre film progresses, we begin to realise this is perhaps not the case - experience and history having diverged.
Joel then discovers what Clementine has done and decides to follow suit. After their affair ends, Clementine decides she can't live with the memories and goes to Lacuna Inc, a quirky, modest business that erases unwanted recollections. In this inventive collaboration with music video director Michel Gondry (the duo also made eccentric comedy Human Nature together), Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) meet by chance, and lose their minds over each other. and the most innovative writer in Hollywood today. Welcome to the twilight zone of Charlie Kaufman, the man behind Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.