Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an unconventional drama about two people’s fading relationship. Starring Jim Carry and Kate Winslet as Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski, a couple who each under go a fictional treatment of brain surgery to have each other wiped from their own memories.

This is an abstract and often comedic film from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman of ‘Being John Malkovich’ fame, and his style of surreal plot writing is very apparent in this drama. The plot is more easily explained through the language of film but in its most basic description, Joel (Jim Carry) finds out his loose cannon ex girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had a procedure to erase any memory of Joel from her brain, acting rashly Joel decides to do the same only to realise while undergoing the treatment that the good memories of their relationship out weigh the painful ones and the treatment is a mistake. So Joel and his memory of Clementine journey through Joel’s mind in order to find a place where he can still remember her, before it’s too late.

If you’re expecting another Jim carry film where he dances around pulling silly faces like all basically every other film he’s been in, then forget it. This film sees Carry step out of his type cast roles to play a mild mannered social misfit which is very refreshing and also effective in the film as the change of pace for Carry comes as a shock and gives his unexpected performance more of an impact. The same thing could be said for lead lady Kate Winslet who plays a loud mouth American extrovert rather than her usual polite British upper class character we see in the likes of ‘titanic’.

Gondry’s direction is superb, leading us down many roads of what we think this film is about before revealing its actual plot, he does this by completely throwing us off course right from the beginning by having a segment of the last few scenes right at the beginning where the couple meet on the train to Montage after having the procedure, apparently meeting for the first time. The look he has gone for on this film is very abstract and surreal once in Joel’s mind and he has tapped into the way we remember things and have dreams so accurately and precisely it’s almost unsettling.
You’d expect nothing but the finest modern cinema from the writer of Being John Malkovich, and in all honestly this film doesn’t disappoint, the cast and supporting cast or all well chosen and give outstanding performances. But Gondry’s style of keeping the plot structure as far from the straight and narrow as possible could confused and alienate some audience members.

by sam