2004. 108 Minutes. Rated R.
Quote:“Meet me…in Montauk…”
No shocker that this gem came from the great Charlie Kaufman. All of his movies have changed the way I feel about things, this one included. Our leading man Jim Carrey was forever cast as the funny, wacky, guy… but once in a while he got a meaty role, and either way, he never disappoints. Even when he’s depressing.
Quote 2: ” Adults are, like, this mess of sadness and phobias.”
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind – Focus Features
This is the same old story. Boy meets girl, boy gets hooked, girl goes crazy, girl trounces all over boy’s heart. What can you do, sometimes them’s the breaks. Now I know many of you ladies reading this are thinking,
“Hey, that’s not true, I’m perfect, it’s the guys who always ruin everything.” To you, I secede and do not want to fight. Whatever you say is fine with me.
This is a story about sad stuff. It takes reality and tosses it right into your face. It grabs your arm, and bends it behind your back too. It forces you to watch. For all the sadness and reminder of failures, it’s actually an uplifting story. Pretty twisted, but uplifting.
Raise your hand if you’ve been dumped (raises hand). Raise your hand if you’ve done the dumping (raises both hands). Once in a great while you date someone, usually someone you were friends with first, cause that’s best, right? Wrong. Once in a great while you date someone, who sucks you in and eventually reveals themself to be selfish and awful. I swear, it’s like I used to attract only these girls. Many other times, however, I was the one who was selfish, and I’ve broken a few hearts here and there. It is what it is. Nobody’s perfect. Like a movie though, I found my happy ending, she writes for this blog too. Enough of that though… let’s get dark.
Getting dumped is the pits, but dumping someone else… that’s no cakewalk, either. It’s gonna be a pretty lousy day any way you slice it. This is where our story begins. A pretty lousy day.
Joel (Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) aren’t going to make it. It’s just not working out. Joel is informed of the fact that Clementine has erased him from her memory (a service we have all longed for one time or another). In spite of his true feelings, his anger propels him to do likewise.
Along the way, he realizes that it may be the worst decision he’s ever made in his life. He starts to run backwards through his subconscious while asleep and plugged into machines (operated by Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood). This really opens up the possibilities of how to avoid pain, and erase memories that are hard to move on from. A reality where we could do all those things we always wished we could do. Thing is… would you really want to? Forget all of it? Is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? Or isn’t it?
THE LIST: Things we always wished we could do
- Make a decision and stand our ground
Hey, when it’s over… IT’S OVER. It’s not always the easiest thing to realize. It’s damn near the hardest, most of the time. We see the reality of romantic downfall in this unrealistic story of moving on. It’s got some parts that are sappy, and cute, very 500 Days Of Summer if you will… or Annie Hall. Other than a few giggles though, it’s fairly dark. This isn’t taken lightly. How long have you hung around in bad relationships? Months? Years? I certainly wasted a decent amount of time with TERRIBLE girls back in the day, and decent is an enormous understatement.
Joel shows us a window into embracing the fact that… she’s moving on. Worse even, she’s moved on (I mean, that’s really the worst right there). It’s a painful realization. The ability to make a decision and stand your ground is easier said than done. If this idea (erasing memory) existed, they’d make a killing. People would be having paychecks direct deposited to their “ready to move on” accounts, or whatever they’d call it.
- Skip the hard part
This film takes a long hard look at Joel and Clementine’s relationship, and they do it in reverse. It starts at the end and works its way back to the beginning. Sometimes it jumps around in time too, which is always fun. Joel goes to erase Clementine, really just to spite her, not because he wants to erase her from his memory.
Something goes a little haywire during process, and he seems to be consciously watching his memories be erased in a dream-like state. Most of the film is spent watching him realize the gravity of what is really being done. Some of these memories are of the best days of his life, the happiest he’s ever been, and he watches them float away.
This frustration is real and true, and Carrey sells this character and this crazy circumstance perfectly. It’s good to show this one to people who argue that Jim Carrey should just “stick to comedy.” He was amazing in The Truman Show and he was even better in this. It’s his finest role.
- Forget the good times, and make it strictly business
“It’s not personal, Sonny, it’s strictly business” is one of the most perfectly placed lines in film history. It’s so true, too. We’d all like that luxury, to take emotion out of it, and just do what we know is best. Let it go, and move on down the old dusty trail.
Life, sadly is not a Bruce Springsteen song. Things don’t always work like that. This relationship is similar to them all in its simplicity. One person realizes it’s over before the other one does, and takes matters into their own hands. Clementine goes about getting on with it, before Joel even knows what hit him. We get to see the initial shock and awe as he learns about her desire to erase him from her memory. It’s harsh at times, but hey, it’s business. The business of getting on with your life.
(end of THE LIST)
I don’t talk about performances too much in this post, if you noticed. You can call it a cop out if you like, but the truth of it is, this is one of those movies (not the best of all time or anything) that lots of people haven’t seen. I don’t want to ruin it. Kate Winslet is fantastic in this picture. She plays crazy like it was second nature to her; not even a glimpse of other characters she’s shown us over the years is anywhere in sight.
This is her best role, no two ways about it. This girl is hell-bent on being a little wacky, and you’d think it was a true story from Winslet’s past, the way she pours herself into this character.
Oh, and Elijah Wood is a creep, too. Great acting from Tom Wilkinson and Kirsten Dunst also. Charged scenes by everyone, even the people with only a few minutes on camera.
