Andrew McMurtryREVIEW: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
October 20th 2008 13:18
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is a quirky romantic comedy that is confusing in its editing, which makes it different and makes it work. Michel Gondry directs this film in a way which uses a technique that seems like he is trying to be as unpredictable as he possible can, with some very long scenes without cuts and some incredibly short cuts in which the people who form Joel Barish’s memory are disappearing. And this works brilliantly.
The story being portrayed is the love between Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet). Clem is a brash, outspoken women who seems to have mood changes almost instantly. Joel is the polar opposite and is shy and introverted. They fall in love almost instantly. But when these two break up, Clem gets her memory of Joel erased. When Joel finds out about this, he is devastated and he too goes to the clinic to get his memory erased. When they begin the erase, Joel realises that he doesn’t want his memory of Clem erased; that he still loves her and wants to remember the good times they had together. What follows is a race through Joel's memory to save any memory he possible can and to get to the morning still with memories of Clem.
There is a sub-plot. This is taken up by the technicians who are eliminating Clem from Joel’s mind. Patrick (Elijah Wood), who had helped out at Clementine’s mind wipe and had fallen in love with her, was using Joel’s memories and objects to win over Clem. There is also the triangle between Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Mary (Kirsten Dunst), who seem to be lovers, and Howard (Tom Wilkinson), who we find out had an affair with Mary but had her memory erased.
Joel’s story is the main plot though, as he does not want the treatment anymore after he starts. There is a period in the film where Joel try’s to hide a memory of Clementine in a different memory that she wasn’t part of so that he may remember her. When this fails, he just sees the inevitability of the erase and just enjoys the time he had left with the memory of Clementine. When he wakes up in the morning, he has forgotten her. Despite this, their paths cross again and, as if fate brought them back together, they fall in love and a scene from the beginning seems to replay, just in the different time. This is when Clementine asks if she can sleep at Joel’s house and just has to go and get her toothbrush. When she leaves the car Patrick comes up and knocks on the window asking “Are you ok?” This also happens in the first half of the movie, leaving it up the viewers to determine if they had already been through the whole ordeal twice.
The main editing in this film is during the dream sequence, in which several good memories are erased and begin to become bad memories as he tries to hide Clem somewhere in the back of his mind, just so he can remember her. The editing is fast and free, jumping around in Joel’s memory and out into the sub-plot of the technicians. There is also the use of allusion to the future of his erasure. The whole beach scene in the opening relates to the ending. The editing and the camera, the colour, it all works together to illuminate their personalities. Joel’s apartment is heavy in shadow, whereas Clem’s is mess and constantly illuminated by the ambient light of outside. The whole movie is built up to lead back to the first place they met, which was at the beach on the perfect white snow. The memories change as Gondry feels necessary, insinuating that they have already had a relationship erased but Joel can still remember it. When we see Joel and Clem’s first memory of the “O My Darling” incident, Clem introduces it. The second time it’s at the beach where they first met and Joel introduces it.
This is a great film, although it is very confusing. It takes a few watches to actually understand the film and the meaning behind it but there are many great performances including all those actors named above and visionary directing. I'd give this film a 4 out of 5, it was very good and a movie I'll watch over and over again.
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