Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind

I was asked what my favorite movie of the past few years was today and I was surprised by how obvious the answer came top me.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind came out to rave reviews across the board a few years back. It was smart, funny, and most of all challenging. And that is why it failed at the box office.

When this film came out, I took it upon myself to champion this film, sending out some of what's below to many of my friends to urge them to see the film. Many, if not most of them saw the film and to my delight I was thanked very often for turning them onto the film. One friend so enjoyed the film that he sent me a free movie poster from it that was handed out at his screening. So I didn't change the box office tally, but I know I did make a difference and helped share my thoughts on what I feel is perhaps the best film to be released in the past few years.

To me, a movie experience is a very personal journey. There are countless reasons why I may like a movie that you do not. Some people enjoy science fiction and fantasy, others straight forward drama. Some like westerns, some like post-modern westerns, and some like any western that doesn't include Kevin Costner. Some people enjoy suspending disbelief to imagine a world unlike their own, others believe that it is impossible to enter a video game and still, years later, refuse to watch Tron. My point is that each person's criticism of a movie is generally, but pointedly bias from the start.

With this in mind, when asked my thoughts of movies, I tend to begin with "In my opinion," so that people know that this was my genuine feeling, but not a feeling that I think should be imposed on another. Unless fully antagonized by a movie, and yes one can be, I also tend not to vilify a film or its maker. This behavior of course has been tested more and more recently, as I find that Hollywood has begun to rush films through production, and thus overlooked minor yet significant details such as, for instance, having a story.

This all brings me to the point of this entry, which is to do what I rarely do, which is go out of my way to recommend a movie. This movie is called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and it stars, amongst others, Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kristen Dunst, and Elijah Wood. This movie, in my opinion, is the most creative and refreshing film that I have seen in quite a few years. Every little detail received attention, from the most subtle acting performances, to the minutia of the set design. While it retains the sensibility of the writer's work (Charlie Kaufman : Being John Malkovich, Adaptation), it shows startling sentiment. I personally liked both movies previously mentioned, but felt unattached, mainly because I could not relate to the characters. I can relate to every character in this film and that is why I found it so engrossing.

Why so engrossing? The story is a very complex and visually stunning look at a very simple idea, which is that the experience of a relationship often means a lot more that the result or its outcome. It's a universal idea, that anyone can find meaning in, whether its is through a broken heart, a failed friendship. or the loss of a loved one. I won't say anything more because the discovery of the movie was a great part of its charm to me. I would hope that some of you may feel the same way.

If you have seen previous films written by Charlie Kaufman, you know that their directors have chosen to mellow the imagry and let the story speak volumes. This is the first film of Kaufman's work that I feel takes the opposite approach, which is to make the vision of the film match the manicness of the script. Each approach is worth admiring, but seeing Michel Gondry's vision on the screen makes it obvious that he made the right choice in being different.

I definitely urge all that missed this film on the big screen to go out and buy or rent the DVD. While I cannot promise that you will enjoy this film as much as I will, I can promise that no film that is on the horizon this year will challenge you or encourage more discussion than this film.

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With Rotten Tomatoes, you can see a general consensus on the film, which I'm very happy to see if exceptionally positive (93%).

Rotten Tomatoes