Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I thought this was pretty brilliant.   It’s from a script by the endlessly inventive Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich”, “Adaptation”), whose work I try not to miss, and directed by Michel Gondry.   As you’ve probably heard by now, it stars Jim Carrey as a man who goes to a memory-erasing service in order to blot out the memory of his ex (Kate Winslett) after he finds out that she’s had him erased from her mind.   Much of the movie takes place inside Carrey’s mind.   It’s very surreal and furthermore, it’s got a challenging chronologically-scrambled structure.   It’s one of those films that resonates because while you’re watching the screen you think, “I know people like that” (or even, “I’m somebody like that”), to the extent that in a sense it seems to be telling your own story.

- Apr 7, 2004