“This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.”

“I know.”

“What do we do?”

“Enjoy it.”

An emotional tidal wave, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a phenomenal movie that explores a heartbreaking story in a surreal and bold way. 

It follows Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) who finds out his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has gone through a procedure to erase him from her memory. Upon discovering this, he decides to do the same.

This is my kind of film. I absolutely adore films that push surrealism and creativity to the max and I was overjoyed to find out this was written by Charlie Kaufman, as I’m a big fan of another film he wrote called Being John Malkovich because of its bizarreness. This film takes a more emotionally driven plot, but he managed to do it really well and created moments that absolutely blew me away. The way the story was mapped out is really interesting, from an intriguing beginning to a beautifully simplistic end with a brilliantly absurd section in the middle. He wrote some brilliant monologues that Jim Carrey delivered gracefully, with the opening monologue setting the tone for the movie perfectly. The majority of the movie is spent inside Joel Barish’s head, so it jumps through their relationship and leaves the viewer to join the dots. This is executed brilliantly in the writing but is also executed just as well visually.

All the transitions and editing are done extremely well and excellently capture the numbing and depressing state of heartbreak and the strange and surreal nature of dreams. I was astounded by the smoothness of all the transitions and how it blended all the scenes together. It all boosts the film a lot and creates an unforgettable experience. 

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet both gave fantastic performances and had very natural chemistry on screen. 
Jim Carrey wasn’t as bold as Kate Winslet but his subtlety shaped all the scenes he’s in, which I was surprised by considering subtlety isn’t what he is known for. Every second he was on screen he was emotionally unforgiving and really impressed me with his range. 
Kate Winslet gave a bold performance as Clementine, nailing the irrational and erratic nature of her character. She presented Clementine’s unstableness excellently and made the most of every second she was on screen.

Some other notable performances in the movie were from Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst, who both acted their roles well. I wasn’t so gripped with Mark Ruffalo’s performance but he’s never really impressed me as an actor. 

It’s been a while since a film has left me in such an emotional state. It’s such a powerful film that needs to be watched by anyone who hasn’t watched. A creative and heartbreaking masterpiece.