One of the legacies of Pulp Fiction across the way smaller, more independent film is done in America is an emphasis on cleverness. Like a lot of things, Tarantino inherited this from the French New Wave and immediately made it his own, and was talented (or lucky, depending on your opinion) enough to do a good job of it. An emphasis on subtle (and not-so-subtle) allusions to all of pop culture, a bag full of narrative tricks and devices, the kind of cinematography and editing that seemed designed to simply show off, characters who are either too-cool-for-school or sad losers to whom you can feel superior, and a knowing audience (and the baseline cynicism they bring) were suddenly very in vogue – something that was made concrete by the surprise major success of “The Usual Suspects.”
Enter the cleverest of a generation of clever screenwriters, Charlie Kaufman. His movies are the kind of complex brain puzzles that get so lost in its own style that it views the idea of having to have an ending with contempt (Adaptation). He was so good at this, his movies seemed like the possible culmination of the *wink wink* snarky cinema for which the 90s will probably be remembered. So it’s so satisfying to see him be behind a movie that has one of the strongest emotional cores of any movie released this decade: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
In this movie, Jim Carrey stars as a man named Joel Barish, yet another prototypical Kauffman loser stand-in, dating the vibrant but troubled Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet). After a particularly nasty breakup, Clementine goes through a process where all her memories of their relationship are erased from her head. Joel, after learning about this, decides to go through the same procedure, but while his memories are being erased decides he doesn’t want it and tries to fight back. That’s where things get interesting.
For a movie that sounds on its surface to be a sci-fi thriller to turn out to be such a complex reflection on memory, and the way we remember and forget the things that matter the most to us is a very pleasant surprise. The cast is all in top shape. Jim Carrey is able to blend into the movie and serve its goal rather than dominate every scene.
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A group of young technicians who are performing the service while getting stoned and talking about The Clash all provide a perfect balance to the rollercoaster going on in Joel’s head. The cast aside, most of this movie can probably be attributed to esteemed director Michel Gondry. Kaufman penned the story off an initial idea by Gondry – and you can tell the director had a lot to say on this subject matter.
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This movie will force you, as it did me, to sit down and think about the way you remember and forget the emotional parts of your memories. My favorite memories all have colors and tones associated with them, just like this movie. Some parts have virtual spotlights on them, while others blur at the peripheries, something that is accomplished with some really amazing camerawork. When I forget something, it’s not the “remembered/forgotten” binary of most movies (Memento, all Hollywood amnesia thrillers); I lose the little things before losing the big ones. As Joel’s memory fades, he forgets faces on strangers and all the small details that fill out a picture; the borders fade into darkness, grays and whites and then it’s all gone. It’s a remarkable way of handling the subject.
That the ending works so well in this movie may have to be attributed to Gondry. Without giving too much away, it has more in common with the screwball romantic comedy genre of the 40s (think Doris Day) than anything else – and in less capable hands it could have easily been just dismissed as a clever name-drop. Or maybe this was Kaufman’s idea all along and we are seeing the birth of a brand new thing: cleverness for the sake of moving the audience, not pandering to them.
