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By Jack Saunders
It's a head-first high-dive into a deep pool of warm, refreshing water. It's a brand of cinema that leaves the viewer both baffled mentally and warmed emotionally and is nothing short of a masterpiece. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has defined and redefined his peculiar, original style of cinema. Through numerous screenplays, Kaufman has startled and calmed audiences with a warped yet delightful style. Being John Malkovich followed a gawky, hopeless puppeteer as he discoverd a slippery-slide-like-portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. Adaptation deliberately broke as many cinema rules as it did cater to cliches. Kaufman even wrote himself into the script while persuading audiences that's something you never do. Kaufman's zany, mind-boggling stories are usually as emotionally simple as they are fiercely complex. Eternal Sunshine is no different. Director Michel Gondry adjoins Kaufman once again, (Human Nature) for a wild, tumultuous ride weighing the pros and cons of memory erasing. After the end of a bittersweet relationship of polar opposites Joel and Clementine, Joel discovers his impulsive ex has erased him from her memory. In an attempt to rid him of the seemingly overwhelming pain, Joel marches to the Lacuna clinic and demands the same procedure be done to him. Is there any risk of brain damage? Joel asks. Technically, the procedure is brain damage, replies memory-erasing Dr. Mierzwiak. An item-by-item inventory of anything reminiscent of Clementine (Kate Winslet) is conducted by the clinic on Joel (Jim Carrey), to pinpoint the precise areas in the brain where Clementine memories are stored. Later that night, clinic techies arrive at Joel's apartment and begin the erasing process while Joel's deep inside a drug-assisted slumber-land. During the initial segment of memory removal, Joel's subconscious travels to the nasty world of bad Clementine memories to toss them out like an old pair of shoes, but in the process, comes upon lost, beautiful images and memories of Clementine worth saving. Knowing these magical moments will soon be no more, Joel works frantically with the remaining memories of Clementine to hide her inside unrelated memories in his brain. Rocketing back and forth in a dizzying fashion, Joel's subconscious counterpart leaps from one memory to the next desperately outrunning fading memories of Clementine to keep, if just one. To avoid a total Clementine wipe, Joel hides her in off-the-radar childhood memories. The re-enacted childhood moments are hilarious and follow Joel as he relives a confrontation with a gang of young bullies, and shares bubbly suds with Clementine in an early-memory sink bath. Through sonic-boom like speed, the subconscious memory-jumping scenes leave the viewer winded and spun. And on the way down from the manic everywhere-at-once high, the film begins an emotional trek, far less hostile and complicated; and tucked inside the film's core rests a simple, real-to-life love story, emotionally sound and beautifully honest and worth the chaotic head-spinning trip. Carrey is central to the films delivery and speed. He proves he can do more than just body contortions and funny noises. His candid portrayal of heartbroken nice-guy Joel Barish feels achingly realistic and sadly familiar. After the breakup, Joel becomes this submissive, poor-postured, depressive character, completely believable because of Carrey's outstanding performance. Later, Carrey does a 180 while displaying the bright-eyed, ready-for-some-ice-cream 4-year-old version of Joel. Other cast members, including Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson and Kirsten Dunst, perform masterfully as the clinic's staff. Winslet puts on her best performance since Heavenly Creatures as bright-hair-color-changing Clementine and finally rids herself of that help-me-I'm-falling Titanic heroine image. But the backbone of this film is Kaufman. His script is both refreshing and shocking, both maddening and divine, both wince-ridden and awe-inspiring all at once. This film left me strangely at peace and instilled with calming warmth. Although spastic at times, this film is incredibly sound and good-natured. It poses a unique dilemma about repressing memories, and arouses a reverence and gratitude to be placed, even upon the bad ones.
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