The movie title is actually taken from a line by Alexander Pope, which they tell you in the movie. Though they also make a reference to Nietzsche, which I like. But that really has nothing to do with the movie, now does it?
Eternal Sunshine doesn't really take you through the story of two ex-lovers backwards, so much as it takes you through it in an unconventional manner. Jim Carrey plays a character named Joel who meets a character named Clementine. The two stay together for a number of years, then have a fight and separate. Clementine comes across this laboratory which will actually remove part of your brain, or erase an actual person from your memory. As they say in the movie, it is a small dose of brain damage. Once Joel has found out Clementine has done this (he is not supposed to find out), he seeks revenge and wishes to erase her! As the process of erasing her begins, Joel has second thoughts and realizes that he doesn't want to go through with it anymore. In something not too much unlike Tron, Joel is spent running through his own mind with Clementine, trying to hide in deep dark places where they cannot find him and erase her forever.
The brilliance of this movie and of Charlie Kauffman is clear in two ways. Firstly, this movie is based on something that could happen in real life but in all probability would not. It is not science fiction really, so it's not too far out there. But at the same time, I don't think that erasing people from your mind is something that anyone is going to be trying in reality any time soon. So it's such a great idea because it can be done feasably, but just in all likelyhood would never be. Secondly, Kauffman takes the traditional ideas of "boy meets girl" and rips them apart during Eternal Sunshine. Rather than seeing boy meets girl, they go on a date, they fall in love, they have a fight, they break up, they get back together, happy ending, etc., this movie takes us through all of that, but it does so while Joel is looking back at his memories. It kind of chops it up and fills in the pieces of the story without actually just taking you directly from point a to point b, as has been done so many times in the past by so many other movies.
My only real criticism of this film is that the ending- for me- was spoiled. I don't know if this was the intent or if I am just super intelligent, but I figured out the ending before I think I was supposed to. There were two factors that did this for me, two little clues. First off, when Joel goes in to erase Clementine, he says they first met at a picnic his girlfriend was supposed to go to with him. In the opening sequence, they show them meeting alone on the same beach, so it kind of throws you for a loop while still thinking, "Well, maybe he just didn't want to admit he skipped work to go to the beach for no reason and then run into this girl, maybe he wanted it to seem more exotic or something". But the second part that did it for me was when she wrecked his car. In the opening sequence, you can see his car is damaged, but the car next to him is clearly not, though he still thinks they did it and leaves them a note saying "thank you". When you see Clem damage the car, you know that's how it really happened, then are able to jump back to the beginning and say, "This movie is going to end right where it started!" Also, if you really pay attention to detail and want to get picky about it, you could just watch the color of Clem's hair. That should be the dead giveaway, but I don't know because I didn't really pay that much attention to it.
With Jim Carrey in a serious yet funny role (not as serious as the Majestic, but not as goofy as the Mask), Kate Winslet (who I don't really know as an actress), Elijah Wood (FRODO!), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane) and even David Cross, this movie just goes to show you that even in Hollywood, there is some intelligence.
[back to NCA Movies page]
[back to NCA home page]