Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)

MIMDB score: 7.8
Current IMDB score: 8.4
Director: Michael Gondry
Main Actors you care about: Jim Carey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Dunst

Why I liked it: It sort of an amazing movie.  It's also sort of a super hyped movie.  It's kind of weird which is why I'm surprised its an 8.4.  I think the thing that appeals to people is the idea of removing someone from your thoughts.   I don't know about you but trying to get someone out of your head is not an easy task.  Most of the time it's not a doable task either.  Many things plague my mind.  If you've ever been in that situation then this movie is a wonderful idea.

The trouble is, and for some reason people miss this part, in the end the movie comes to the conclusion that you would just go back to the same person.  I think the movie is really saying that you have to go through those relationships that mess you up.  You have to have that experience to get past "it" in life.  I'm not just talking about dating a type of person.  "It" could be any number of underlying problems you have.  The only way you get past some things is by going through that experience in some cases.  It's why sometimes when you tell people not to do something they do it anyway because they have to learn for themselves.

I think that message is just a nice way of thinking though.  In reality it just really sucks to have to go through a failure.  I don't know why people have to go through more than others (or at all).  It could come down to cleverness, intuition, being smart?, or just plain luck.  I kind of think it is just luck.  Love in particular is too hard to figure out even though it should be easy.

What stands out:  It's kind of interesting to be in Jim Carey's mind.  It's kind of cool how they do it but it's kind of weird like I said.  I like it but not enough to consider it amazing.  It's only sort of amazing how they do it.  It's a good idea but I'm not overly impressed with exactly how they did it.  I think visualizing the mind could be done better.  It does stand out though because very few movies before it did it as well as this movie.

What I would change:  I don't like Kristen Dunst's character.  She is a floozy.  She wanted to cheat on her boyfriend with her boss, she got involved with someone who she knew was married, and she got so mad that she sends back every persons' memories to them.  That is kind of extreme in my opinion.  It does go along with the movie's idea that even if you could erase memories it wouldn't help all that much but she is so irrational.  I don't like that her character did all of those bad things in the movie.  Maybe she thinks the only way people won't repeat their mistake they are trying to forget is by sending it out but I doubt in every case it was like that.  Also she didn't have the right to do that.  I don't like her rashness in the decision.  She should have talked it over with her boss at least and came to a decision to do that instead of just doing it.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:  Anything in Montague.  That place is awesome.

"Sand is overrated.  It's just little rocks" Agreed.  Beaches are not that great despite what near ever girl in the world says.  "Oh what are beaches compared to rocks and mountains." should be the saying.

"Why do I fall in love with every girl I see. . . ?" Nature I guess.

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd"  It's a beautiful phrase and part in the movie.  I really love "the world forgetting, by the world forgot."  I usually quote that to myself or under my breathe whenever someone (including myself) says or does something I find hypocritical (which is frequent, it's hard to be consistent in life).

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Manhattan but it's kind of boring, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, the TV show called The Affair, mostly because it's in Montague and you get different points of view of a mind (kind of?).  I think I just like the Affair a lot right now.

"Side" note: Alexander Pope's poem, Eloisa to Abelard is kind of long.  This is the poem the eternal sunshine quote is from.  I wanted to read and analyze it with my girlfriend at the time.  Unfortunately she had already studied it in a class of hers and knew what it was all about.  I never really took the time to figure it out after she told me she already knew what it was about.  That shouldn't stop you from reading it and figuring it out for yourself.