Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Mark uncovers quite probably the best new science fiction film he has seen since Minority Report and well before. A device allows for the removal of painful memories by erasing them. The hitch is that the memories must be opened and partially relived as they are being erased. Charlie Kaufman's third script is demanding, but it is delightfully engaging, intelligent, and even profound.

SPOILER WARNING: Some people seem to be missing the point of the film. I will explain the concept of what I saw. This reveals no more than other reviews or what the trailer reveals, but even that might harm the viewer's enjoyment. It seems these days that Philip K. Dick has eaten the top end of science fiction films. Just about all the best science fiction films seem to be based entirely, in part, or implicitly on ideas from Dick's writing.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE is a film that does more than borrow Dick's reality-bending ideas, it tells a story that has center and heart. It is also a film that has pathos and chuckles. And it has what Martin Gardner would call the "Aha!" experience.

This is a film that does what the best science fiction does. It allows us better understand the human experience by putting it on a lab table and dissecting it in ways we could never do without science fiction. If the viewer can follow what is going on, and not all viewers will be able to, this is a real gem of a movie.

Picture Frank Sinatra. You have just pulled a memory from your head and visualized it, seeing it not exactly as you first saw it, but as a close facsimile. Suppose your memories of Frank Sinatra cause you pain. Dr. Mierzwiak (played by Tom Wilkinson) has a machine that can locate those memories, open them up, and erase them. But in opening them up the patient relives the memory at least partially until it is completely erased. Years of memories can relived in a single night, each for the last time.

The memories that Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) finds and the being reminded of his reasons for having his memories erased give insight into his relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) and also more generally into human behavior. And there are fascinating visuals of him reliving his memories at the instant those memories are deconstructed.

Plot. Yes, I should tell what the plot is. Joel wakes up one morning dissatisfied with his life. On a whim he skips work and takes a train to the beach at Montauk. There he meets Clementine, who attracts him and who seems playfully interested in him. She is an off-beat kook, but "kook" is just to his taste at the moment.

Some time later their relationship has run its course and the good time he had with her is just a painful memory. But Dr. Mierzwiak is an expert on removing painful memories. For a fee he has his two (indifferent) assistants (Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo) go to Joel's apartment one night and put a big weird helmet on Joel's head to replay and erase Joel's memories of Clementine.

This starts Joel's strange odyssey through his memories, reliving each for the last time. Meanwhile the less than positive attitudes of the two assistants causes problems for the sleeping Joel and for the awakened Dr. Mierzwiak.

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's first film was the creative BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. His second film was the nearly as good ADAPTATION. Now he is showing that he has not yet reached his peak.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is the best script by a surprising margin. The director is Michel Gondry, but for once it is the screenwriter who is getting the attention. And that is only fair.

Hopefully this is a movie that will show the film industry that good writing can do more for a film than good special effects. I rate ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 9/10.

Mark R. Leeper

Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper

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