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Films dabbling with
the brain have been cropping up from time to time in Hollywood. Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one more but it is the MTV style
treatment that makes it so exciting
JIM Carrey is no great comic as far as I am concerned. In fact he is better in serious films like The Truman Show. This time he is good in a sci-fi romance of sorts called The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Take any Joe, an average, everyday guy, falling in love with any girl he meets and set him up with an impulsive, free-loving fun girl. Can these two very different personalities tick? He plays Joe Parish and and Kate Winslet is Clementine. Actually Clementine makes the first move and it is the shy Joe who responds somewhat hesitantly. But it doesn’t take long for them to get into their first spat. "I don’t need nice, don’t you know any other adjectives," she throws at him but is soon to apologise. "Sorry I yelled at you, I’m a bit out of sorts," she says. It is obvious it will be a blow-hot-blow-cold relationship. But there is more to it than just that. Here’s where the sci fi comes in. When Joe goes to a shrink (Tom Wilkinson) they try to erase his memory. Now films dabbling with the brain have been cropping up from time to time in Hollywood. There was Secpmds and Charly in the 1960s and A Beaautiful Mind more recently. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind is one more but it is the MTV style treatment and the shuttling back and forward in time and space that makes it so exciting. Is the shrink hatching a sinister plot? There is an intense assistant (Mark Ruffalo) and a horny secretary (Kirsten Dunst). To add to Joe’s problems, Clementine has another suitor (Elijah Wood), so there are enough of candidates to be sprayed with suspicion. Music video director Michel Gondry brings his wizardry to films in this his debut and he has the audience virtually eating out of his hand. Shades of Run, Lola Run. The film is imbued with humour, suspense and romance. Jim Carrey at times of course lapses into his idiosyncrasies but this is forgivable. He is generally good and is ably supported by the ebullient Ariel-like Kate Winslet, often blessed with the best lines like "I’m a fu...d up girl looking for my peace of mind, don’t give me yours." Kirsten Dunst too has come a long way from her goody-goody roles as in Little Women. And there are good cameos from Tom Wilkinson and Mark Ruffalo. It is essentially the form that is its USP. But it is matched with content, thanks to an excellent screenplay. An unusually exhilarating Hollywood film. Different and unorthodox. Don’t miss it. —E.E.M. |
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