Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)
by Michel Gondry
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Elijah Wood, Gerry Robert Byrne, Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom WilkinsonDirector: Michel Gondry
Brand: Universal Studios
Writer: Michel Gondry
Producer: Anthony Bregman
Producer: Charlie Kaufman
Writer: Charlie Kaufman
Producer: David L. Bushell
Producer: Georges Bermann
Writer: Pierre Bismuth
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Widescreen; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; NTSC
Movie Reviews of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Eternal themes masterfully portrayed
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the better movies I have seen, that has come out in the past couple years, and was so good in fact, that I felt compelled to share my experiences of it. Being that it was a film by Charlie Kaufman, I expected a quirky, off-beat, and avant guard movie. In this respect, the viewer will not be disappointed (or disappointed, depending on the viewer!).
But unlike movies such as "Adaptation" or "Being John Malkovich", although good movies, at times felt as if the movies were done for the sake of pushing all the cutting edge boundaries of film making and story telling for the sake of pushing the boundaries, rather than simply telling a good story and entertaining the viewer. In other words, it sometimes felt rather clichéd and contrived.
In "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", the artsy, film house effects and techniques work flawlessly well, because this time the story is focused, the characters are well developed, and very timely and universal themes are rather well played out. Speaking of themes, I felt a couple outstanding themes were developed in the movie and I would like this review to highlight them. Besides, many others have done an excellent job already of articulating the plot and character development (especially in Carey and Winslett), which I don't want to rehash.
On that note, I felt these themes were particularly illuminating and quite poignantly done:
1) Authenticity to ones self and loved ones: In the comical scene where Patrick (Elijah Wood) confesses to Frank (Thomas Jay Ryan) that he feel in love with Clementine and stole a pair of her panties during her memory erasure, we find that Patrick schemes to win the love of Clementine by confiscating all the love trinkets accumulated by Joel throughout his relationship with Clementine, and using those to induce feelings of love in her for him.
This backfires of course, because those trinkets, love letters, and souvenirs were not gathered, given and exchanged in an authentic relationship such as Joel and Clementine had. Likewise, the main characters Joel and Clementine were not authentic to their own self and willing to face their feeling for each other, that cause them to separate painfully and facetiously attempt to erase each other by removing memories of each other though medical means.
This was also exhibited nicely in a parallel story which occurred between the lead doctor Stan (Mark Rufallo) and Mary (Kristen Dunst). I thought these parallel subplots were nicely done to provide a comparison and contrast to the main characters and storyline and solidified the theme of authenticity.
2) Memory "in search of lost time": Much like the protagonist's quest to recapture lost time thorough memory in Marcel Proust's most infamous and monumental novel "A la Recherché du temps perdu" (translated usually as "Remembrance of Things Past"), we see a similar quest through the Jim Carrey character Joel.
However disjointed and non-linear Joel's memories are narrated, the movie in fact portrays a sequence of chronological events in Joel's memory of his relationship to Clemetine, as they are being slowly erased. In my opinion, it is the way this movie unfolds these events that makes this movie a masterpiece.
Proust's novel was influenced by a famous French philosopher of his time named Henri Bergson, who made a famous distinction between chronological time and psychological time. The former is constrained by the physics of constant forward motion with which we are powerless to escape, whereas the latter is flowing and dynamic manifestation of our complete inner world. It is one by which time neither goes forwards or backwards, but is one in which past, present and even our future (since our past and present for the most part dictate our future actions) synergizes by one of the most important abilities we have, which is memory.
Thus, in the beginning of Joel's erasure and with the flames of anger and resentment still burning hot against Clementine, he mostly ruminates on the bad incidences and times he had with her. Such as the time, which from Joel we learn was the last time they met, was when Clementine came home late and drunk, and rather casually remarks "I kinda, sorta wreaked your car". Or the scene in the restaurant, where they looked like the kind of couple you feel sorry for, or the "dining dead". In these scenes, the memories are clear and the cinematic techniques are done such that we feel just as observers in a regular movie watching two couples in an end of a relationship.
But as the movie progresses, the scenes become more disjointed and surreal, to the point where Clementine becomes Joel sidekick in his quest to thwart his memory erasure. And much like in real life, when we lose a dearly loved one or painfully broke up a loving relationship, the particulars of the memories we had of that other person starts to fade, but what we usually retain are the memories we want to keep. And as Proust and Bergson postulated, we "fill in the blanks" of our memories with our own interpretations and narrations.
This was masterfully portrayed in the last of his memory scenes, when we learn that it was during a picnic at the beach where he first met Clementine. Though Joel is replaying the memory, he realizes it as so for he states, "it was so intimate, like we were already lovers". This process of rendering actual again what seemed lost, is exemplified when Clementine tells Joel, "this is it, Joel. It's gonna be gone soon. What do we do?"
"Enjoy it", responds Joel. Through the multiple channels of memory can be evoked a complex series of emotions, revealing that through a step by step process, how sensory experiences can reawaken one's person past, which reveals how one's inner world can color and provide vibrancy to one's total experiences as a human being. And when that is lost, one's humanity is lost. Thus, when Clementine whispers "Meet me in Montauk" into Joel's ear in the final memory sequence, it was one of the most heartbreaking scenes, because you release he just lost a major part of his humanity, not to mention the lost of all the beautiful experiences he had with Clementine.
As can be gathered, this is quite a complex and multi-layered movie that can be interpreted in many different ways, but does have upon reflection a core and universal theme about love, relationships, and how the mind works to assimilate and interpret them via memory. Though the movie is almost without flaw, I do feel the ending should not have been resolved so conveniently. As a Salon reviewer stated, the ending "was almost crushing", since "the risk of getting burned should have been left to us". I'm not so harsh about the ending, as I understand this was Hollywood produced movie, and no doubt the executives might have felt such a nihilistic ending would put off the large portion of the audience who were most likely seeking a dark and quirky comedy. Nevertheless, given that such a richly textured and deeply moving movie was actually produced out of Hollywood, should be enough to get you to view this rare gem and warrant repeat viewings. You will not be disappointed.
-Don Kim
Summary of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND - DVD MovieScreenwriters rarely develop a distinctive voice that can be recognized from movie to movie, but the ornate imagination of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) has made him a unique and much-needed cinematic presence. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a guy decides to have the memories of his ex-girlfriend erased after she's had him erased from her own memory--but midway through the procedure, he changes his mind and struggles to hang on to their experiences together. In other hands, the premise of memory-erasing would become a trashy science-fiction thriller; Kaufman, along with director Michel Gondry, spins this idea into a funny, sad, structurally complex, and simply enthralling love story that juggles morality, identity, and heartbreak with confident skill. The entire cast--Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, and more--give superb performances, carefully pitched so that cleverness never trumps feeling. A great movie. --Bret Fetzer
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