I am really enjoying Netflix, I have to say. It's a brilliant way to catch up on all of these movies I have otherwise not had the time to see, and I love the fact that there is no deadline pressure to watch these things. They appear in the mailbox; I return them there when I'm done and put the little flag up. All is magical about this service.
I promise I don't work for them.
Now, don't judge me here. The next film in the queue was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Hey, look, it's not like I haven't really really wanted to see this movie ever since it came out. It's just one of those films that I haven't really had the chance to see until now. Sometimes that happens.
This movie was all at once magical and twisted, beautiful and ugly, smart and yet senseless. There was something poetic about it, and yet something that didn't quite gel when I pondered all of the pieces. I loved it all the same, but it's a tempered love, a cautious love that keeps me from thinking this is the most brilliant movie I have ever seen. It's certainly brilliant in its own fashion, don't get me wrong; it's just got a quality or an element that doesn't sit right with me. I'll try to explain as best as I can, but I don't know how articulate I can be.
Eternal Sunshine...is billed as a romantic comedy, which I find ironic, because I never laughed. Seriously, I never once laughed at this picture. I chuckled bemusedly once or twice, grinned, and even inwardly rejoiced, but I never once laughed. I didn't find this movie funny, and I'm very perplexed about that.
Eternal Sunshine is a boy meets girl picture that only Charlie Kaufman can write. Jim Carrey (love him!) plays Joel, a man who learns that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had a procedure performed that effectively erased all memory of him. He decides that he should also do the same, so he visits the doctor (Tom Wilkinson) who invented the procedure and sets about it. Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood--Frodo!) are the technicians responsible for the work, which is performed in Joel's apartment, except Stan is only interested in Mary (Kirsten Dunst), who visits Stan and kanoodles and gets way too stoned, and Patrick is only interested in Clementine, as he creepily assumes Joel's identify and a relationship with her now that she's lost memory of Joel (oh, and he steals her panties, yipes). Complications arise when Joel, consciously or unconsciously, decides he can't go through with the procedure and, in his mind, tries to hold onto Clementine's memory.
The movie best works on the visual level based on the representation of Joel's memory wipe. Michael Gondry's direction is simply brilliant, to match Kaufman's brilliant screenplay, that reminded me somewhat of a filmed version of the Beatles' "Revolution 9." It had all these trippy pieces with no linear progression and very little connection, but it all represented the same thing: Joel revisiting memories good and bad that he fights desperately to cling to. The cinematography and camera technique fit so well; I mean, at first it was distracting because of the lighting choices, the color palate, the blurs and other distortions, but then naturally, I adjusted to it because it fit what was happening. I especially loved the scenes when Joel tried to "bury" Clementine's memory so he would not lose it and ultimately flashed back to childhood scenes, where Jim Carrey's actual size was at odds with his environment. Those were the scenes that elicited bemused chuckles.
The movie does not work when considering that I did not think Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet had all that much chemistry. Maybe that was deliberate; maybe I was supposed to think this pairing never had a chance in hell, and maybe that made the erased memory and the struggle to hang onto it more compelling? I don't really think so. I did not really believe them as a couple - though I did believe them as their individual characters. Each actor's performance was marvellous (especially Kate's). This is the bit that confused me a little. When they were together, I never really believed they were together, even in the first frames, when we are first introduced to them. When they were apart, however, I saw them, without much suspension of disbelief, as who they were trying to portray. I don't think it's because the characters themselves are supposed to be mismatched because even mismatched lovers can still have a spark of something between them; I never felt that between these two. I don't have a good answer for this, unfortunately, but it undercut, somewhat, my ability to love the film wholeheartedly.
It's the sentiment of the film, the emotional center, that really drew me in and convinced me to love the film at all, though. The situation Joel finds himself in is fantastic, even a bit absurd, but his struggle to hang onto whatever he knows of Clementine, because of his love for her, is real, and the full circle nature of the feature is an effective device for throwing the viewer into a tailspin and making them catch up, just as Joel has to catch up to those erased memories.
I think I have to rate this movie an 8.5, for having, say, one or two minor flaws but still being very good, but not for being perfectly entertaining, because it isn't really. It's a convincing story that makes you think, but I wasn't laughing or crying or emotionally reacting as much as taking it all in. Maybe repeat viewings would produce one or more of those effects; to that end, I think it passes my test. It's weird enough and beautiful enough that I would want to watch it again and think about it some more. Also, the title of the movie is a stroke of genius, which I appreciate. All in all, it was a lovely film and, even, eternal in its own way.