Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [DVD] [2004] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Yeah, "Eternal Sunshine" is a mess, but what a sweet and beautiful mess it is. It might be quite a difficult watch for some, but ultimately rewarding if you invest enough time and patience to sit through. Somewhat reminiscent of an Andrei Tarkovsky, Wachowski Bros, David Lynch and Christopher Nolan film, our protagonist Joel bounces between twisting realities under a highly non-linear narrative structure.As I always say, fragmented storytelling is not a cinch. Rather, it is a high-wire act. On the page, it might read well; but on the screen, if you don't put everything on proper places, you will run the risk of losing the viewer pretty quickly. Thankfully, that doesn't happen in "Eternal Sunshine" due to the magical touch of two talented mind-gamers: writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry, both like messing with expectations as well as human psyche. Take Kaufman's "Being John Malkovich", "Human Nature" and "Adaptation", you'll get what I mean.The premise of the film is based on a breakthrough technique (Lacuna) to expunge unpleasant memories off people's brains. Being engaged in a flawed relationship destined to fail at the very beginning, Joel wakes up one day and finds Clem left him. He realizes that she had him erased from her memories. Love-torn, confused and enraged, he decides to do the very same thing rather than living with the pang of losing and missing her. Then when he trapped in sleep, we take up a pleasing albeit mind-bending journey into the depths of Joel's subconscious. We see their relationship within a time loop: in reverse-order flashbacks starting with the most painful memories of the breakup and working forward to the earlier, sweeter ones. But, as Joel relives his moments with Clem, he realizes that the good times he had with her are so precious to him. So he tries to put her into other parts of his memory so that she will never to totally forgotten.Overall, "Eternal Sunshine" is an offbeat experience and definitely a triumph of romantic sci/fi subgenre. Highly recommended.

I think Jim Carrey is a huge talent. His comedy roles are generally superb and I don't think that many of them could have been performed better by any other comedy actor, so when I say that I think this "straight?" role could be his finest work, it shows how much I rate this performance. I've watched this maybe half a dozen times since it's release and it still holds up as a tremendously enjoyable film. Kate Winslet is also superb and their screen chemistry is very convincing. Great story and visually clever it manages to be both thought provoking and emotional while remaining entertaining. By the end of the film you feel you have been treated like an adult and the film has a certain lightness of touch which really works for this story. Highly recommended.

Likeable plot (theme) but disjointed and over-complex storyline. Worth watching especially if personally pertinent.

Arrived quickly and played ok

A beautiful depiction of love and partnership at its most difficult. With the main characters caught in utter despair the interesting idea of memory removal allows them to live out their lives as if nothing had happened. This creates ethical dilemas and leaves you thinking for a while afterward, if you could erase the love of your life, would you?

My wife and I have just watched this film. I'm always looking for a decent film that we haven't seen before. I made the often repeated mistake of allowing other peoples reviews to influence me when I bought it.We're all different thank goodness. Others have found this film enjoyable. For both of us though we found it boring and to be frankly upfront we surprised ourselves that we sat all the way through it.It's probably an age thing. We are in our sixties. But that said we've both enjoyed all sorts of films recent and old. Only our opinion, but don't spend a lot of money on it.

Beautiful film . Loved it from from start to finish .a powerful , moving piece. Anyone who has had a rocky relationship with someone they care deeply about will be particularly capiitvated by the central concept of this movie. Carreys best non comic performance .

Such a boring film, heard such good things about it but for me I couldn't wait for it to finish.