Mini Review #3

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

I loved this movie. This movie gives us what we all secretly wish for. A chance to forget something that's hurt us in the past. You can almost live vicariously through the two dysfunctional characters that are remarkably just like ordinary people. The relationship problems are the same. The little fights and bickers are things we all can relate to. The acting was amazing throughout the movie. Carrey and Winslet pull off a great performance, both ditching the typecasts that they've been shackled with. Not only did the film give us the opportunity to see what it was like if painful memories were erased, but it also gave us the opportunity to see that everything deserves a second chance. The way it ends leaves you to imagine how the characters' lives will end. The idealist may say that they lived happily ever after, the pessimist may say that they just reverted to disliking each other again. Either way, it leaves you to imagining your own ending. A characteristic many films leave out. Basically, this movie makes you think, What if. It truly gives new meaning to the phrase "You never know what you've got until it's gone."

Here are some interesting facts about the film:

• When Stan (Mark Ruffalo) scares Mary (Kirsten Dunst), director Michel Gondry asked Mark to hide at a different spot each take to actually scare her.
• Clementine's hair goes through several color changes, blue, orange, red, green, and brown which seems to be her natural hair color. This helps the viewer keep track of where her relationship with Joel corresponds to the plot.
• During the train scene, Kate Winslet punches Jim Carrey. This was not staged or planned and Jim's response is that of genuine surprise.
• In the tape recorded sessions with Kate Winslet, Carrey accidentally wrecked the tape recorder when he got so much into the scene, he threw it across the room.
• When Clementine and Joel are in the Montauk beach house, Clementine finds an envelope that says David and Ruth Laskin. David and Ruth are the first names of Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey's assistants.
• According to Mark Ruffalo, the scene where Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Mary (Kirsten Dunst) dance in their underwear over an unconscious Joel (Jim Carrey) was improvised.
• When Joel is in his head and is visiting his session of the erasing process, no special effects were used to show the two Joels in the one scene. Jim Carrey had to take off his hat and jacket when he was not in shot and had to quickly sit down in the chair and visa-versa when he has to stand up.