ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo

Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes

Rated R (for language, some drug and sexual content)

Directed by Michel Gondry

This is my first ‘retro review’, where I take older, A+ films and review them as if they were new. I do it to raise awareness for some of my personal favorites. I’m starting it so that I’ll have something to do when a movie drought comes along and I refuse to pay for any of the garbage showing in theaters.

In ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, an unusually calm Jim Carry, playing a man named Joel Barish, breaks up with his strange yet undeniably charming girlfriend Clementine, played by Kate Winslet. Clementine subsequently undergoes a procedure that will erase all memories of Joel that she has, and when Joel finds out, he goes to have the same procedure.

I refuse to spoil anything else, as this story is a true masterpiece. It is a strange film, but it doesn’t rely on its oddities to the extent of other weird little films like this. It is an example of a simple and beautiful story told in a very abstract fashion.

Some will be very confused with the film for the first half-hour or so, as it jumps around chronologically without much apparent reason or purpose. However, once the movie starts up, and the viewer gets into the storytelling methods it uses, it becomes fascinating, romantic, funny, strange, dark, and oddly beautiful in its exploration of the human psyche as Joel’s memories literally disappear before his eyes.

In the end, this is a powerful, abstract vision of a great concept with consistently great writing and acting, and has a spot on my top ten favorites ever. It may not be for everyone, but frankly, nothing really is. Go rent or buy this film, and watch it more than once. It doesn’t matter if you like romantic films or not. The themes here are universal, and their execution couldn’t be any better. A near-perfect film.