Second chances

I’ve been watching movies for as long as I can remember, and none has baffled and moved me all at the same time in the past 12 months as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has. And I’ve never even considered myself a romantic until I realized I am during the first five minutes of another movie (Before Sunset).

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of those movies you have to see from the beginning to appreciate what it is all about. And when you do, it’s also one of those movies you’ll want to see again and again so you won’t forget the film’s most poignant and heartbreaking moments.

Why do I like this movie so much? The unnaturally long title is lifted from an Alexander Pope poem. It is set around Valentine’s Day but it has quite an eerie, haunting score that moves you to look for romantic mush elsewhere. This is going to be a mind trip as well as an emotional journey.

Jim Carrey of Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber fame is a completely different character here, though. As he did in The Truman Show, he sneaks in a couple of funny glances here and there, as if they are some sort of a Jim Carrey "wink" to his longtime fans.

Such transformation from an actor more recognizable in louder roles is only one of the reasons why this movie is special. This isn’t going to be your average popcorn fare. As Joel Barish, Carrey epitomizes the quiet desperation of daily living, of endlessly riding trains to work, and of being attracted to women who pay the least attention to him. He often confines expressing himself in journals, thinking that he himself is not interesting enough to other people.

His life changes when he runs into the more outgoing Clementine (Kate Winslet). She literally puts color into his monochrome life, and it’s not just because she changes hair colors so often.

Yet, like most relationships that hit bumpy roads, Joel and Clementine go into a similar funk. Clementine, the more impulsive of the two, chooses to erase Joel completely out of her mind without his knowledge. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michael Gondry present this "radical" turn of events as Joel processes such thoughts (and memories) in his head, as he starkly discovers and remembers what happened.

We learn that Joel, out of initial spite, decided to undergo the same memory-erasing procedure as well, Thus, the disappearing street names, book titles, etc. in his fading memories of Clementine.

Through Joel’s head, we see Joel and Clementine struggle to make the relationship work, like most of us do in real life. Joel runs those memories in his head like we would file away old paper documents, deciding which to keep and which to throw away. Midway through the procedure, he realizes he has memories of Clementine he doesn’t want to forget, and fights his way through his deepest recollections to keep them.

Kate Winslet, in yet another great role, doesn’t only put in a believable American accent that makes us forget she’s from Great Britain. Her winning performance charms not only Carrey’s Joel, but audiences as well. Together, Carrey and Winslet make you care through their characters’ courageous attempt to give each other another chance.

Of course, this is just a movie amid all the other real relationships that falter and end in heartbreak. But in a more unforgiving world, it’s nice to be transported to a place where "OK!" gives us hope. You have to see the movie to see why.

And while the story is mainly about Joel and Clementine, the supporting characters complete the picture. Memory erasers Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo, and Elijah Wood all provide a good match to Carrey and Winslet’s excellent performances.

Kirsten Dunst’s character, too, has her own story to tell, and in the brief time she was onscreen, she is more convincing than all her portrayals in the Spider-Man movies put together (yes, let me include that one which has yet to be filmed).

Don’t let the long title fool you into settling for a one-word title that might be easier to remember in a lesser film. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is easily one of 2004’s best, and perhaps one of the best told and best portrayed love stories this decade.