Comedy Film Review: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

(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 The film starts with the two meeting on a train, and immediately being drawn to each other, despite Joel being a withdrawn, egocentric, and Clementine being whimsical free spirit.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 Joel is introduced as an emotionally withdrawn person.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.