Film review: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind - 10/10

Charlie Kaufman is a man the media like to label a genius. He appears eccentric and enigmatic, emerged fully formed onto the world's consciousness in an instant through a infinitely discussable idea with his script for Being John Malckovich and continues to excite and confound. With Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind he has produced his best work yet.

Jim Carrey plays Joel, a man who discovers that ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had him erased from her mind so she can move on. To spite her he decides to erase her from his mind and tracks down the company that provides this service. However part way through the operation he decides his memories are too precious to lose and tries to fight the procedure.

Large parts of the film take place within Joel's mind, which allows for all sorts of fantastical things to occur as his memories are erased. Combining this visual trickery with a non-linear storyline risked rendering the film an indulgent mess, however the fantasy elements of the film add emotional richness rather than being an intellectual exercise. They also help to heighten the tension as more of Joel's mind is being censored.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is one of the greatest celebrations of love committed to film. It celebrates the way love can lead to ecstasy and to pain and recrimination. Through Joel experiencing the piece by piece loss of the best time of his life the film allows viewers to consider their understanding of love and relationships in ways they hadn't considered before. When Joel realises that soon he may never have known that Clementine existed the way he tries to make the most of his memories while he can is more tragic than any dying heroine could be.

Complementing the script is a career best performance from Jim Carrey. Covered in stubble and a woolly hat he makes an engaging introvert struggling to connect with other people. Kate Winslet is equally good as the extrovert Clementine whose changing hair colour is the easiest way to keep up with the chronology of the film

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is a peerless example of film making. It will either become a cult classic or, hopefully, one of the most celebrated films of all time, regularly appearing in the upper echelons of critical lists. See it now and treasure the memory forever.