Out of all my top 10 this is the most recent to be released at cinemas, I first saw the film on DVD in early 2005 and fell in love with it straight away. For a while there it felt like my own little secret until I realised many others shared my appreciation of this compelling piece of filmaking. I now encourage as many people as I can to watch the film and as long as they go into it with the knowledge that its not your conventional love story than they, like me, have a great experience watching it.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the brain child of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman who has become well known for his concepts that at first appear very strange but are in fact original and pure genius when they are put into practice on screen. This film not only added to his respected status but showed that he was capable of displaying real heart in his stories. Teamed with music video director Michel Gondry, whose clips have a similar style of strange genius to Kayfman's stories, and you have a classic love story that is equal parts comedy and drama. It's no secret that Jim Carrey has been typecast over the years but even today when I watch this film it amazes how skillfilly he makes the audience forget all about his previous roles and allow them to concentrate on self-depreciating everyman Joel Barish, the main character whom he plays so well. The job was however made pretty damm easy by the strength of the material he's working with, his partnership with actress Kate Winslet in her best role yet doesn't hurt either.
The main reason to watch this film is for the eye popping sequences in which we revisit the fragile couples memories which literally crumble before our eyes as they attempt to erase each other from their thoughts. Most of these sequences were filmed without the aid of computer imagery and this makes the final product even more of an achievement because they are some of the most inventive scenes caught on film. These scenes are held together thankfully by honest, heartbreaking moments between the couple, this is not your typical relationship: they fight often and aren't compatible on the surface but in truth they are perfect for each other, the moments between them are real and this kind of releationship is rarely seen in cinema.
Here's a scene from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind....
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