What is it?
The 2004 science fiction romantic comedy psychological drama movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
What is it about?
This is how Rotten Tomatoes describes this movie:
The second feature from director Michel Gondry (Human Nature) finds the filmmaker reteaming with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for this off-the-wall romantic comedy.
Jim Carrey stars as Joel Barish, a man who is informed that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of their relationship erased from her brain via an experimental procedure performed by Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson).
Not to be outdone, Joel decides to have the same procedure done to himself.
As Mierzwiak’s bumbling underlings Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) 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.
Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, and Jane Adams also star.
~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
Final Thoughts
The official trailer for this movie is so terrible and misleading that it probably hurt this movie’s success, which is a shame, more people (like myself who did not see it until several years after it was made) would have probably watched this movie if it had a better trailer; and so I used a fan-made trailer at the beginning of this post because it is way better and more honest than the official trailer.
When I saw this movie years ago for the first time during the evening or night alone on a computer when I was in a contemplative mood, I was surprised by this movie and I enjoyed it and it impacted me, and I was amazed by Jim Carrey’s performance (it was surprising and great to see him in a serious / normal role) and I liked his character Joel Barish and I liked Kate Winslet’s acting and her character Clementine Kruczynski.
In some ways this movie was ahead of its time and is a surprising mix of genres, it somewhat reminds me of the movie Inception in some ways oddly but more comedic and with more drama, which is a good thing because Inception is one of my favorite movies.
This is not your usual romance movie which is refreshing, it managed to be more realistic than some romance movies, while still having various surreal and science fiction moments with a bit of comedy.
I did not like it as much the second time that I watched it, the second time I watched it with my brother GC who did not seem very interested in the movie, I liked it more the first time that I watched it; and so it is one of those movies that is probably better watched at the right time, in the right environment, in the right mood, with the right people / person, and then you can really enjoy it more.
This is one of those movies that I think that more people should see at least once, it may surprise you too, just make sure that you watch it at the right time / environment / et cetera for you.
I would give it a 4 out of 5 as a movie, and maybe a 5 out of 5 for romance movie.
The end,
-John Jr
John Jr's Blog 