Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Since I'm having some love troubles lately, I had the urge last night to pop up again my DVD copy of this great seminal 2004 movie for the fourth time. The film still greatly affected me and put me in bucket of tears every time I watched it. It is still one of my top 10 films of all time. To me its one of the greatest and powerful love story in the history of modern cinema. This all can be attributed to the direction by the superbly talented Michael Gondry (Bjork, Radiohead vids) whose top notch work in this film complemented the mind boggling story of the ever creative Charlie Kauffman. The latter is also responsible for the genius behind the 1999 film, Being John Malkovich.

The film deals with a failed relationship of two people, Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) and their quest to erase the memories of their roller coaster unforgettable love affair. Both of them hires the services of Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) who has the capability of deleting all the memories of past relationships. During Joel's memory elimination, he journeyed back to all the moments he shared with Clementine. But in the process he consciously becomes aware of what's happening and tried to stop it, because he wants to preserve the good moments they had before losing it forever.

I love this film not only because it tackles about the importance of love but also the unique presentation of the film. I really have a thing for movies which has a particular surreal feeling. Case in point is my two of my all time fave films, 8 1/2 and Wild Strawberries. In this film, the camera tricks are just creatively simple and yet so engaging. Some of the scenes has strange and dreamlike quality. The cinematography is elaborately unusual with some hazy shots to enhance more of the films poignancy. The execution of the film captured perfectly the feel when a person is in a state of dreaming.

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind touches my heart and soul like no other film ever. Every time I watch it , I always think of my current "love of my life" to learn to appreciate him more and not to take him for granted. I always start to try to inculcate in my mind that ill never know how truly great a person is until he's gone in my life. Memories of failed relationships, even though good or bad is still integral part of the maturity of a person in dealing with love. Experiencing the moments is important enough but being in that moment is already a keeper. This should be treasured forever both by the persons involved. In relationships, even you mightily try to completely blank out your mind with all the memories of the person, the machinery of your heart still remains and has the power to dictate that the person is your true love or to continue or not no matter what. My fave review quote the one I read somewhere in Entertainment Weekly magazine "Watching ''Eternal Sunshine,'' you don't just watch a love story -- you fall in love with what really love is"

rating: *****