Sometimes someone making a movie will get way too far ahead of themself, or they may just not even be in the same zip code anymore. Well, Michel Gondry is just that type of film maker and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is just that type of bad film.
So where, oh where, does this moive go wrong? Well, that's such a long list that even i'm not smart enough to be able to remember it all. I can tell you a few good flaws with this film, and i'm sure i'll get flamed for saying this too, but bring it on. First off, the acting. It's uninspired and bland. The characters have no real feel to them, no demension, no humanity. Add on top of that the bad stereotypical character types(i.e. Joel and Celmentine being the socially awkward outcast types), and you've got a great idea on paper. But hey, Communisim worked on paper too. Joel is such a quiet and subdued role, and just seems to boring that it made me cry a little inside to see Jim Carrey in that spot. Again the character, and thus the acting involved, are uninspried and bland. Clementine is the exact opposite of Joel, though. She's loud, outgoing, with anoyyingly bright colored hair and an attitude(that girl has to have bi-polar disorder or something to have
those mood swings) that matches it. So one has to wonder, how the hell could two people who are so very different from one another ever
ever look at each other in a romantic light? The rule of "opposites attract" only applies to magnetics and quantum physics. Speaking of quantum physics, how about this "plot"? They decide to have each other erased from the others memories to avoid anything weird, right? So how is it that at the end of the film, they still know who the other person is?
That's simply not possible by any laws of the universe. If something is erased from your mind, you don't remember it again. Now, if you get a bump on the head and forget something for a while that's different. To have your mind systematically wiped clean with some over the top machine would not allow such a thing to happen. Laws are there for a reason, and it's not so that hacks like Gondry can break them at his damn desire.
So, is there actually anything I did like about this movie? Ok, Kate Winslet is a fairly decent actress who's not exactly hard on the eyes, and there's a scene where Kirsten Dunst is dancing around in her underwear. There, I gave you the two good things about this film. Be happy I could even find that many. Avoid this film, avoid it like the bloody plauge.