flicks
Friday, April 09, 2004
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004
Jim Carrey - joel; quiet, stagnant, slightly intellectual fellow. doesn't talk much, repressed, old man lifestyle. feel like he does need the color and spice of clementine. and he brings the stability, faithful, blah. first serious role i've ever seen him in. he wasn't creepy w/ his facial expression. his eyes have a deep softness.
Kate Winslet - clementine; open, impulsive, quirky; interesting ideas -- laying out on the frozen river, night picnics, trespassing on someone's summer home, "suffocating" w/ pillow thing; strong individual, knows herself, still has issues (not beautiful enough; 'clementine' was the name of her ugly doll that she tried to will into being beautiful when she was little). she's pretty, not amazingly so in some takes, but she looks genuine.
Kirsten Dunst - mary; blond who has the hots for the inventor/doc (which was disturbing); she's cute (esp dancing in her undies), but not much of a character, other than the act of redemption w/ returning people's tapes (and possibly screwing up other people's lives)
Mark Ruffalo - tech guy who was going out w/ mary; funny hair, not much of a character
Elijah Wood - even less of a character and scuzzy as well (used joell's things to try to get clementine); just seemed immature and awkward w/ no redeeming qualities; nice skin... not a good follow-up to the lord of the rings
writer - Charlie Kaufman; also did being john malkovich, adaptation, confessions of a dangerous mind?,
- michael gondry; known as well, but i don't know for what
plot - start w/ him waking up, looks at blinds, and what looks like a birdfeeder hanging fr the window. dashes off to montauk for some reason. meets her on the beach. and they eventually sort of hit it off. she seems a little aggressive in terms of relationship, but still endearing. relationship. and then comes valentine's day [hm. it started w/ mentioning valentine's day, people at the train stop w/ boxed chocolates and flowers], and they got into a big fight. he got her a gift and went to her work (b&n) to give it to her and he sees her smooch this young fellow [turns out to be elijah eventually]. he goes nuts, b/c she doesn't remember him, his married couple friends shows him the card that he's not supposed to see -- lacuna enterprises, the memory erasing people. these people request that you bring in every scrap of something [and relationships accumulate so much stuff; the flash thru all the good memories, how deep-seated people get into your life] and try to recreate the memory so that they can eradicate it later. so he checks it out b/c he's upset that she got it done. and then he eventually decides to get it done himself. take pill, new set of jammies, 2 boys come over to do the procedure overnight. clementine calls elijah away b/c she's an emotional wreck for some reason. fuzz head boy and mary are busy doing their own thing. and who knows what's going on in joell's brain -- reliving memories, mixing them up. a lot of things are disappearing, and he's eventually talking to super-red haired clementine about how to really save them -- creating a new memory, ingraining them in humiliating moments, +. and eventually, with their relived 1st time of meeting, joell just learns to enjoy it. they met on the beach, the person joell was living with at the time -naomi- wasn't there. time, what really happened gets confused. and mary's memory of her crush on the doc was erased, and it came back as well. why they would keep her so close i have no idea.
made me cry a lot - not continuously. just the slashing cries of anguish at times. how frail memories are, the strong desire to grasp them but coming up with nothing (cotton candy). i wish i could love so freely, have as much fun and good naturedness that i imagined them to have. and the conclusion -- "it's okay", that the journey is worth it even if she does become bored b/c that's how she is and he's just a stick in the mud (accusing her of sleeping, or hinting of sleeping w/ someone to combat her insecurities) b/c that's just how he is. i wish i could make that leap. and most of all i wish i knew someone to make such a leap for/with.
jim carrey did remind me of tm -- scrappy looking at times, facial expressions, goofiness; but i'm no clementine - and that was a slight turning of the thumbscrew. feeling that i wasn't enough for him. perhaps i lost out on my "one chance" and something great. i know it's unrealistic. but thoughts/feelings that arise and i need to let go.
cinematics - i didn't like too much all the imagery; b/c they all seemed to be mishmashed w/ no particular theme; the things falling apart and disappearing was common, to be expected; wandering thru the darkened house, guided by a light/flashlight always creeps me out; things mutating - people's faces erased also freaks me out, but not too extensive
setting - montauk was how it began, and sorta how it ended - i thought it was central ny, but too much water (ocean! lots of ocean scenes), juts out into the atlantic. but the seats in the train
4:05 showing (matinee!) at the spectrum; w/ q
108 minutes - didn't seem too long or too short
title -
...
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
...
"eloisa to abelard" by alexander pope
long poem. got half way thru it. reading poetry is hard work, haven't done it in a while. seems like a love poem about relationships, grandness of love; fr the woman's perspective?
Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744). Poet, born in London, England.
