Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Review by Clint Morris

If Jim Carrey had access to the kind of mind-erasing machine featured in his new film, chances are he’d use it on many of the filmgoers and primarily, critics, who reacted rather inauspiciously when he first attempted versatility.

For as good as Carrey was in The Majestic and Man on the Moon, the box office discarded his goad to switch genres like a 4-year-old would peas.

Seems people just don’t want to see crazy Jim Carrey playing serious James Carrey.

Determined to show folks he’s more than silly faces and crash-bang gags – he’s at it again. But before he heads back into the untrodden backwoods again, Carrey’s paying the crafty physician of celluloid a visit, Charlie Kaufman.

If anyone can turn a rubbery-faced comedy clown into a plausible serious actor that’ll have sceptics biting their tongue, surely it’s Hollywood’s most talented screenwriter?

Those who’ve seen either Being John Malkovich or Adaptation know that a Charlie Kaufman penned film is about as hard to describe in words as ice-cream is to keep in a cone on a summer’s day. Near impossible.

But here’s a quick attempt: Carrey plays the rather introverted, severely depressed Joel. Having just discovered his girlfriend Clementine [Kate Winslet] has had her memories erased of their turbulent relationship – he decides to do the same.

Unfortunately, once the procedure begins, Joel decides he doesn’t want to forget about his crazy, rather screw loose lover, and fight – inside his brain, of course – to hang on to her.

Unlike his previous films, Kaufman’s latest comes together a little better than the sensational but rather all-over-the-place plots of his other films. You won’t think it within the first half an hour, but by film’s end, it all fits perfectly.

Jim Carrey is a knockout. If he doesn’t have critics eating out of his palm after this one, it’ll be rather surprising. He has credibly immersed himself in the role of a scruffy-looking, rather sad nobody.

In some respects, he’s still quite amusing, but most of the time, he’s an unlikely sad sack hero that we can’t help but root for. He’s a hundred times more credible in this than he ever was in The Truman Show.

In addition, the supporting roles are just splendid – Winslet, Dunst, Ruffalo, Wood and Wilkinson – and that probably has a lot to do, again, with Kaufman’s knack for giving ‘everyone’ something to do, or director Michel Gondry’s palpable flair for artistic filmmaking, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant their character.

It is an odd movie, and so it won’t be for everyone, but if you can bare something that's 180 degrees from the norm and is extremely enterprising (read: creative), you will be richly rewarded.

Easily the most captivating couple of hours you’re likely to have at the movies all year, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is brilliant cinema – don’t miss it.

4 out of 5

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Australian release: Thursday April 15th
Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Adams, David Cross.
Director: Michel Gondry.
Website: Click here.

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