Eternal Sunshine Nearly Spotless

Director Michel Gondry (“Human Nature”) and FOCUS Features present another brilliant screenplay by Charlie Kaufman (“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”, “Adaptation”, “Being John Malkovich”) in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, and Tom Wilkinson. Unfortunately, the spotless nature of Eternal Sunshine stops with Carrey.With a habit of reinventing himself, Carrey garners an evocative performance as Joel, a laidback, average Joe, who meets the eccentric book store clerk Clementine, played by Winslet. Their tumultuous relationship is told in a non-linear, erratic style of memory, where Clementine’s mind-erasing therapy to forget her unhappiness with Joel causes him to go through the same procedure at the hands of Wood and Wilkinson. Carrey’s previous dramatic roles in features like The Majestic, Man on the Moon, and The Truman Show don’t come close to the weight of Eternal Sunshine. He carries the downtrodden and impulsively caged Joel with precision, as if this had been his true-self all along. And although he merely hints at that funny guy America has grown to love, it is clear to see that he can handle that teetering-on-crazy ingenuity of Kaufman’s screenwriting mind.Winslet, who was featured in The Life of David Gale, Quills, and Titanic, was a letdown as the emotionally volatile and eccentrically colorful Clementine. She simply couldn’t pull of the psyche-splintered edge of the character, not to mention the impulsiveness. Although her previous roles have never been as meaty or allowed for so much emotional freedom, Winslet didn’t seem to want to run with Gondry or Kaufman’s overall twisted love story vision. A sketchy Wood and an only slightly dubbed-down Dunst, along with acting veteran Wilkinson, complete the erasure-geeks of the film, but much to this viewer’s dismay. Wood’s performance comes too soon after his role as Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and many reviews compare the creep on film in Eternal Sunshine to the gentle hobbit of Lord of the Rings. Dunst can’t make a clean break from the flighty, feel-good cheerleader roles of her past, even in such a sparsely on-screen role. Although the casting held much to be desired, Eternal Sunshine is a rarity of a film, but the kind that could only capture audiences as a spring feeler before the summer’s blockbuster season. It does raise the bar for future films and future screenplays, especially the way many of the scenes were shot using a hand held camera. Gondry created a low-tech, high imagery movie unlike any other in Hollywood that hopefully will set a precedent. Many of the most interesting visuals include the patterned erasing of book spines and even the literal destructive disintegration of a beach house around the two struggling lovers. All in all, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is another Kaufman mind-pleaser with an exceptionally haunting performance by Carrey. If you can overlook the rest of the cast, Eternal Sunshine may just brighten your hope for more of the same brilliant twisted screenplays in months to come.