Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’m seeing this Wednesday. I’m so excited I could spit. Reviews like this aren’t helping.
Hey Harry,
On March 2nd, Northwestern University held an early screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind followed by a Q&A with Michel Gondry (!) and Charlie Kaufman (!!) afterwards. After waiting hours for a ticket and a good seat, the wait was well deserved.
This is Kaufman's most mature and satisfying work and its played out brilliantly by Michel Gondry. I never checked out Human Nature, turned away by the negative buzz, but I bought Gondry's compliation of music videos/commercials/ short films and was blown away. His three, five minute music videos are consistently better than features being churned out today; I've seen every video probably a dozen times with friends (maybe not the Oui Oui ones so much).
But take the brilliance of "Star Guitar" and "Hardest Button to Button," or any other of his videos, and place that same spirit and innovation in a feature film, and this is what you get. Gondry gives it all he got to place you inside Joel's memories and panic. There's an amazing sequence where Joel is replaying his memory (for the last time) of finding Clementine at Barnes and Noble after their first encounter... as the memory plays out, and as Joel is desperately trying to escape with her out of the memory, the books start blanking out. The text on signs and posters vanish, til in the end it's only Joel left admist an aisle of empty pages and blank spines. It's a subtle and powerful scene that Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet sell perfectly.
But don't get the impression the movie is mainly long lingering poetic yearning; this is a mindfuck of a film. The movie veers to the nightmarish and bizzarre, and then surfaces into wacked out Freudian situations (with Joel retreating with Clementine to a memory he has of a child, with Clementine posed as his mom's friend) then just gets more bizzarre (and hysterical). Did I mention how funny the movie is too? Jim Carrey's comedic chops still shine but don't ever get in the way of the film. He's a suprising good match for Kaufman's humor-- though by no means is this Ace Ventura, or even Cable Guy. This is his best "serious work" since the Truman Show, if not his best.
But the thing that most surprised me was the solid work done by the supporting cast. Kirsten Dunst does her best stuff here since Virgin Suicides, and Elijah Wood is *perfectly* cast. Tom Wilkinson and Mark Ruffalo (why isn't he in more films??) are great as always... their storylines were a complete surprise to me, as nothing of it is indicated by the trailers or promotion. They really shine here and deserve a lot of credit... Dunst particuarly. I've been annoyed by her recently with her sleepwalking as Mary Jane and Mona Lisa Smile, but she redeems herself here playing a smaller yet crucial role that affects every character.
I'm trying to think of any criticism of the film, as to not have Plant! written all over me, but I haven't seen a film this involving and brilliant like this in a loong time. Gondry and Kaufman said they were trying to get away with making the film as complex as possible, wanting to take the audience on a ride and *eventually* get it... kudos to them. They've made a challenging, but most importantly, rewarding searing analysis of all the pain, hate, love, and joy of a break-up. Its a film that doesn't cheat its audience or downplay them. Adaptation was great, but I have mixed feelings on the end... someone asked Kaufman on why he made this film with a happy ending and his reponse was "Happy? I guess thats great if thats what you got out of it, but what you might see as happy, others might find different. I like to write things that could be speculated at the end...." That's major paraphrasing, but that was the jist of it. That definitely jives with the spirit of Adaptation's third act, and also of the ending in Eternal Sunshine. Though not as cinematically controversial as Adaptation's third act, ESotSM ends on an ambigous note of these two people wanting to be each other, needing to be with each other, but also having to confront on what they will be and what they will eventually might do or say. Kaufman said his favorite scene, or at least the one that struck him at that particular moment, was at the end with Joel and Clementine "first meeting each other" (after the erasing was done on both their parts). Its when Joel played his tape of what he thought of Clementine and all his frustrations with her(the tape patients make before they undergo with the procedure), with Clementine walking into the room. The tape has past Joel saying "And I hate that phony hair, it's all an act..." or something to that agree- and then present Joel in the room immediately rebutts "I really like your hair," with Clem murmuring "Thank You." A funny, complex, and heartfelt. I give it a solid A.
Senor Pablo
P.S. The Q&A didn't yield too much juicy information. Charlie Kaufman mentioned writing something for Spike Jonze, but didn't let any details slip. Michel Gondry was very french and very awesome, citing his main force in creating the movie was so that Spike didn't snatch it up. BTW, Charlie Kaufman is exactly what you would think he would be. I had flashbacks of Nicholas Cage in Adaptation while watching Kaufman talk... when asked of his feelings towards writing original screenplays or adaptations, he admitted that Adaptation was pretty much how it was. Kaufman also mentioned his script of A Scanner Darkly and his love for Phillip K. Dick and the book. The guy's really passionate about it- let him do it!! Linklater would be great and all, but Kaufman would probably blow it out of the water. One more thing, Kaufman also mentioned making monster and gang flicks when he was a kid! He told a story of filming this gang movie with his buddy, editing in camera and playing both gangs. The police showed up, thinking it was a real knife fight, and when realizing it was just a movie, became encorporated into the flick! How cool is that?
Good stuff. Thanks for sending it in.
"Moriarty" out.
