Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

[Cobra]

Anybody seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind yet?  I saw the trailer a while back and thought it looked very interesting, and was expecting good things when I realized that Charlie Kaufman wrote it (Being John Malchevich, Adaptation).  Well, I saw it this weekend, and I'm to go ahead and say that this is now one of my favorite movies of all time.  Jim Carrey has been hinting at his ability to play a serious dramatic role for some time now, with The Truman Show and The Majestic, but those movies didn't really do much for me.  This, however, was absolutely fantastic.  I thought he did an absolutely spectacular job in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as did all of the actors in the film, really.  Extremely well written, and extremely well executed.  I enjoyed it so much that I just had to see it a second time (something I very rarely do).  Has anyone else seen it yet?  What did you think?

[spike]

I personally havent seen it, but I have heard nothing but good things about the movie. Seriously, I havent heard a single bad review from a friend whose seen it.

[alaric]

This movie is crap. Don't waste your cash folks. This movie plot has already been done enough and previous incarnations of it were far less trite.

At best this movie is disgustingly predictable. This is one of the few films in recent memory I have seriously considered walking out on. (The other being Cold Mountain. *blech*) In fact, one couple in the almost empty theater I was in did just that. Bastards. I should've gotten my money back too.

At one point during the movie, I felt the urge to stand up, move to the front of the theater, and shout "move along people, nothing to see here" while gesturing at the door.

This is nothing more than a wannabe artsy flick aimed at a sub-genre of movie-goer I can only describe as "Bondo". And yes Bucc, you know exactly who I went with that loved this film to pieces.

If you would like an example of a movie of this style that doesn't suck, look up "Lost in Translation". The same emotions of being lost and lonely are played on only to a much more effective, and satisfying end.

Executive Summary:

Two thumbs down, WAY down.

[Cobra]

I also saw Lost in Translation, and enjoyed that movie as well (have the DVD, seen it multiple times), but I honestly do not think it was better than Eternal Sunshine ? acting, story, or otherwise.  How was this more "disgustingly predictable" than Lost in Translation?

[alaric]

Well... In ESSM I had pretty much the whole movie figured out when the characters discovered the first note. The hobbit sighting at the beginning was a huge tipoff.

The thing I really didn't like about ESSM was the fundamental premise of the movie, the whole idea of it just doesn't sit well with me. It makes me feel... in a word... icky. And the drama between the people in the movie was way too "days of our lives".

Lost in Translation, on the other hand, was not predictable to the same degree that ESSM was. Of course, certain things, like the friendship, were inevitable, however the ending was perfect and unexpected. And the fact the two main characters don't fuck a couple of horny highschoolers is a huge points bonus.

I also didn't like the pacing of ESSM, the first hour went along fine enough, but the last hour was way to damn slow. I guess basically once I figured out what the rest of the movie was gonna be I kinda wanted to get on with it instead of pussy-footing around waiting for the slower audience members to catch on.

In the end, the major difference between the two was one left me with an "icky" feeling and the other left me "fullfilled".

[BFG]

I thought Lost in Translation was an extreamly enjoyable and well made film. It was shot beautifully and although perhaps not the most original story board, i think Coppola did an extreamly good job and produced a fine piece of work. It was sentitive, not overly done, and avoided the classic 'hollywood' ending.