Movie Review
Title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Film Review by David Zimmerman
Rating: 4/5
Running Length: 108 minutes
Classification: Rated R for language, drug and sexual content
Major Actors in Cast:
• Jim Carrey as Joel Barish
• Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski
• Elijah Wood as Patrick
• Thomas Jay Ryan as Frank
• Mark Ruffalo as Stan
• Jane Adams as Carrie
• David Cross as Rob
• Kirsten Dunst as Mary
• Tom Wilkinson as Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
Director: Michel Gondy
Synopsis: Emotionally withdrawn Joel Barish (Carrey) and dysfunctional free spirit Clementine Kruczynski (Winslet) begin a relationship on a Long Island Rail Road train. They are inexplicably drawn to each other, despite their radically different personalities. Although they apparently do not realize it at the time, Joel and Clementine are in fact former lovers, now separated after having spent two years together. After a nasty fight, Clementine hired a New York firm (Lacuna, Inc.) to erase all memories of their relationship. Upon discovering this, Joel is devastated and decides to undergo this same procedure himself. However, while unconscious and having these same memories erased, he rebels, realizing he wants to hold on to his memories of Clementine and himself after all.
Much of the film takes place in Joel's mind as he struggles to preserve at least some memory of his love for Clementine. Their love and courtship goes in reverse as the memories are slowly erased while Joel tries his best to resist the procedure and hide inside his own mind.
In separate and related stories, the employees of Lacuna are revealed to be more than peripheral characters in scenes which further demonstrate the harm caused by the memory-altering procedure. Mary (Dunst) turns out to have had an...
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