Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
When my parents took me to see The Mask I instantly became a Jim Carrey fan. With both The Truman Show and Man on the Moon he showed he could do more than being just a rubberface. However, in terms of acting, I don’t think he does anything extraordinary here. It is the script that elevates this movie to among the best science fiction movies.
I don’t think I have seen this film since it released and I could mostly remember the basic concept and the tragic love story, but I had forgotten how trippy the memory sequences was. Those were really well done with some convincing effect shots as well. The emotional impact didn’t hit as hard when I knew where everything was going with Joel and Clementine.
My praise for this movie is how it is science fiction done right. I love science fiction, but the vast of majority of science fiction movies are crap. They are decades behind concepts and ideas the genre provides in written form, and often poorly executed. The best science fiction movies also tends to be based on a novel or short story, with this being a notable exception. A single invention is introduced to our world and we just let the consequences go from that. In this movie it exists in this little microcosm of the city and we don’t explore the ramifications for the greater society with such a technology, but that would have been a total different film. I think it works well on letting this concept develop within just this small group of people.
There are many philosophical themes explored here with regards to how memory shapes who we are and how it likely won’t work to simply erase stuff and stay sane, and while the ending may seem like a happy ending on the surface, I think the point is that they will just repeat the pattern because they refuse to learn and reflect from their breakup.
Watched for Tildes movie of the week
Rating: 4