Much of the film takes place in Joel's brain as he tries to find a way to preserve his memories of Clementine, and two Lacuna techies Patrick (Elijah Wood) and Stan (Mark Ruffalo) try to erase the memories. However, while unconscious, Joel has second thoughts and decides he wants to keep his memories of Clementine. Upon learning this, Joel is devastated and goes to the doctor to have the same procedure done. After a nasty fight, Clementine has had her memories of their relationship erased from her mind. They do not realize it at the time, but they are former lovers now separated after two years together. They are inexplicably attracted to each other despite their different personalities. Dunst is deep into hero worship of all the scientists, especially Wilkinson’s gentle guru, without realizing the implications of that hero worship.Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is an emotionally withdrawn man and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) is his girlfriend who is a dysfunctional free spirit. Ruffalo is goofy and unthinking, while Wood’s puppy love for a former patient has a genuinely nasty side, the equivalent of psychological rape. ![]() Wilkinson gives the doctor such a calm intelligence that you almost forget what an appalling device he has invented. Most exciting of all is that third act, where characters who no longer know one another must find each other again using the heart and not the mind.Ĭarrey takes all his usual antic energy and bottles it up tight to portray an anal man both attracted and repelled by Winslet’s free spirit who changes her attitudes almost as frequently as her hair color. It’s a wonderful concept - to see a couple relive their life together, going backward, but able to make comments on what each was thinking and to see how each may have misread the other. Joel and Clementine move through space as the scenes behind them change and morph like animation cels gone mad. The movie then becomes a race between Joel’s frantic efforts to cling to a piece of Clementine and the mad scientists in pursuit of those memories.ĭirector Michel Gondry, a French music video director who made his directorial debut with Kaufman’s Human Nature, beautifully orchestrates Ellen Kuras’ cinematography, Dan Leigh’s production design and Valdis Oskarsdottir’s editing so memories merge and evaporate seemingly in a single shot. He tries desperately to hide his memory of her in places in his life she never visited. As his memories of Clementine vanish, Joel begins to realize how much he will miss her and what an impact her impetuous nature made on his orderly, over-regulated life. Which brings us to the second reality - in Joel’s mind. Stan is mildly disconcerted about this but is much more disturbed when his patient begins to resist the procedure and he must call Dr. Using what he knows about her life and attraction to Joel, Patrick has unethically wormed his way into her bed. Patrick’s tongue loosens, and he confesses that he fell in love with Clementine while zapping her memories of Joel. In one, in Joel’s bedroom, Stan and Patrick - later joined by another office assistant and Stan’s girlfriend, Mary (Kirsten Dunst) - raid Joel’s liquor and start to party even as the procedure continues. The movie now divides into two realities. Mierzwiak traced the previous day, the brain-scanning device searches and destroys each memory one by one. Using a map of Clementine’s presence in Joel’s brain that Dr. ![]() Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), he impulsively decides to undergo the procedure, too.Īfter taking a knockout pill at night, Joel falls into a deep sleep while two of Mierzwiak’s assistants, Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood), enter his apartment in Yonkers and strap on memory-erasing headgear. Rushing to see the inventor of this process, Dr. Barish knows his relationship with live-in girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) is unraveling, but he gets the shock of his life when he learns that she has had her memory of him completely erased from her mind. The references to the mind and brain in the preceding paragraphs are apt because the movie basically takes place in the mind of Joel Barish (Carrey). Focus Features should enjoy above-average box office for this spotless confection. The film will appeal to Jim Carrey fans and women drawn by Kate Winslet, but there will be a strong core audience of young and older adults who can’t wait to see the latest Kaufman brain-tickler. The third act works like a charm and pulls all his themes, characters and conflicts together beautifully. 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi': THR's 1983 ReviewĮternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is not only his most accessible and romantic screenplay, it’s his most complete.
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