(Warning: If you haven't seen it yet,
there are spoilers in here.)
With Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in leading
roles, Elijah Wood (famous for his portrayal of Frodo) in a major supporting
role, also starring Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst, and having received over a
hundred awards and nominations, including an Oscar and a Movie of the Decade
Award, it's safe to say this film was a success. On Wikipedia it's listed as a
dramedy (a form of comedy) and Netflix outright categorises it as Comedy.
Therefore we can now talk about this distinctly unfunny film.
This film follows Joel Barish (Jim Carrey)
who tries to erase his past relationship with Clementine Kruczynski (Kate
Winslet). The film starts with the two meeting on a train, and immediately
being drawn to each other, despite Joel being a withdrawn, egocentric, and
Clementine being whimsical free spirit. At this point they don't remember
having been together for two years. After a huge fight, Clementine had the
entire relationship erased from her memory to be able to move on. When Joel
received a note from the memory erasing company, he was devastated and had the
same procedure done. The film then goes on to show the process of erasing his
memories. In the last few scenes we see Joel and Clementine finding out they
erased each other, and they were miserable together. At first Clementine
refuses to get back with Joel because they'll just be miserable again, but when
Joel accepts the misery, she gives in and they go on to live miserably ever
after.
The first issue we run into with this film,
is the usage of a blue filter over the camera. This gives the film a depressed
tone. Blue filters like these can work very well to create a setting and a
certain emotion to a scene. A prime example of this done right, is Disney's UP!
where the colour use becomes more cheerful as the main character becomes happier. In
this film however, the blue filter is used on virtually every scene. This makes
the entire film depressing, which immediately removes all comedic value. Even a
joke which could have been funny is made depressing by this blue filter.
The second issue is with the characters in this
film. The characters are not developed in any way. For instance when Clementine
is introduced we need to feel she is a whimsical free spirit. Therefore her
hair is blue. Now she's whimsical. Done. Joel is introduced as an emotionally
withdrawn person. Therefore he wears all black and has a bit of a beard, not
too much, and he acts like a jerk to others. Done. Here's how deep our
characters go, there are only superficial character traits with no depth and no
multi-dimensional character development. As a result, there is no chemistry
between the characters. Even in memories which are intended to show deep
emotions such as love, happiness, anger, sorrow and even hate, there is no real
chemistry between the actors. This makes it hard to become really involved with
the characters and the story as a whole. Also there is a lot of cursing in this
film. Although this in itself doesn't have to be a problem, but in this film it
is. Why? The cussing doesn't feel 'real'. It is obviously scripted and feels
incredibly forced. The cussing seems to be provoking just to be provoking. This
is not 'deep' or 'art', it is just bad writing.
|
I just wish I could erase this horrible waste of time |
The bad writing both in character
development and the obviously scripted cussing prevents the characters to
develop a proper personality. This is a shame, as the actors in this film are
all good actors. Although Jim Carrey is generally more of a comedy actor, he
has shown to be able to deal with heavier subject matter as well, such as in The
Truman Show, which is a brilliant film. In Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind however, none of the actor's talent is really put to use. As
a result, the acting isn't particularly memorable or intriguing. Also much of
the dialogue between characters seems incredibly forced, mainly due to the lack
of chemistry. If the viewer doesn't believe the conversation would happen in
real life, the dialogue is pointless.
At times, the main characters (both Joel
and Clementine) are shown to have a wire loose somewhere. Joel attempts to
attack a young boy who used to bully him as a child. He looses, which is an
attempt at comedy, but the joke falls flat as I was busy feeling horrified by
the thought of a grown man deliberately attacking a child. Clementine
shows her crotch to a fiveish-year-old Joel. She sees him as the adult Joel, but
his behaviour is that of a small child. Therefore I found it incredibly
inappropriate to show him her crotch. To sum up, one of them attacks a child,
the other shows her genitals to one. Also Clementine, being a whimsical free
spirit and all, convinces Joel to break into someone's house and drink their
wine. What's wrong with these people?
In addition to the superficial characters,
there are several proper attempts at comedy. Unfortunately, most – if not all –
of these fall flat. Not because there's anything wrong with the joke itself,
but because it just feels out of place in this film. For instance someone
falling over and getting up saying 'ouch my ass' may work in an Adam Sandler
film, but not in a dramedy, let alone in a heavy drama such as this.
As is demonstrated by many comedies in
different genres, drugs, alcohol and marijuana use can lead to comedic
situations. In this film however, the abundant use of narcotics seems yet
another feeble attempt at creating a persona for the character. Something which
the writers seem to have missed, is that a weird outfit and the fondness of
drugs do not a character make. In this film it falls into the same category as
the cussing, as a pointless, at times frustrating, trait.
Another issue with this film, which easily
could have been avoided, is the sound editing. In many scenes the music and
sound effects overpower the dialogue. Maybe this is an attempt to hide the poor
writing, but in any case it takes away from the intensity of the film. This
may be due to Gerry Robert Byrne's involvement, as his other big project Brokeback
Mountain suffers from the same problem.
As mentioned, this film doesn't feel 'real'
in many places. This includes the main plot point: the erasing of one's memory.
The techniques used in the film would not work in real life to erase people's
memories. The film uses science fiction-logic to explain the process, which
just doesn't work if the equipment used is 20 years old. This film was made in
2004, yet the computers used are from the 1980s or maybe the early 90s. This
just doesn't work. The process of erasing memories from the brain would be a
futuristic technology, so the equipment used should at the very least be
contemporary, preferably futuristic.
Possibly one of the most obvious and
recurring problems with this film is it's randomness. Frodo wears glasses with
eyes on springs, Joel fakes a suicide as a joke, there's a random underwear
dance on Joel's bed (while he's sleeping on it, which is both disrespectful and
inappropriate), there are random emotional or violent outbursts with no
build-up to justify them, and the list goes on. Legendary film critic Roger
Ebert even said the film “[jumps] through the deliberately disorienting hoops
of its story”. 'Deliberately disorienting'. That's exactly the feeling I had
while watching this film. Disorienting can be good, fooling your audience can
lead to hilarity (think Monty Python or Tommy Cooper), but deliberately
disorienting and confusing your audience does not automatically make your film
good, funny or deep. This film completely misses the mark and is just confusing
for no reason, which isn't funny.
That's not to say the stylistic choices in
this film are all bad though; the relationship between Joel and Clementine is
shown in reverse, which makes sense. After all, a recent memory would be easier
to access than a first memory. With the science as it is explained in the film, it makes sense
to remove memories in a reverse order. This choice is actually pretty clever
and works really well in the film.
Unfortunately that doesn't make up for the
huge number of stylistic mishaps in this film. For instance having Clementine
slide away into darkness may seem a clever way to symbolise loss, but it is too
obvious. In addition, she is suddenly back around 2 seconds later, which takes
away all mystery and symbolism the film almost had. Also, I felt happy during
those two seconds after she vanished, because I though the torture of the film
was nearly over. Sadly, I was wrong and the film went on for quite some time
after that.
The story behind this film isn't bad at
all. In fact, I can see why this film got an Oscar for best screen play, and I
think it would make a brilliant book. However, to list it as a comedy is an
insult to any comedian. Besides that this film is full of holes and it is a prime
example of the fact that, even though a film can make you think, that doesn't
necessarily make it good. In addition, the message this film sends is clear,
but disturbing: If you've made mistakes and felt horrible, just erase your
memory, remove all lessons learnt and start over, ready to make all the same mistakes
again!
As mentioned, the film has a solid idea,
with great potential behind it. Also we can see actual effort was made, this
wasn't a project anyone took lightly. However, the film misses the mark and as
such is mainly a waste of 108 minutes you're not going to get back. The
question the film poses is good, but can be summed up less than 30 words:
It is a good idea to erase your memory of a
relationship, and should you get back with someone of whom you
erased all memories?
Think about those questions, but don't
watch this train wreck of a film.
As always, this review portrays the
author's personal opinion only. There is no intend to hurt anyone and everybody is
entitled to their personal opinion. If you like this film, that's great, you
just have a different taste than I do and it won't make me think any less of
you. All feedback is welcome, but please respond in a civil manner to this
review, and to other comments.