What The Critics Say

"A remarkable film that can coax a smile about making the same mistakes in love and then sneak up and quietly break your heart." Peter Travers ROLLING STONE "Blisteringly funny, thought-provoking and heartfelt romance." Phil Villarreal ARIZONA DAILY STAR "Another home run for Charlie Kaufman! Carrey and Winslet are fantastic! 10 on a scale of 1 to 10!" John Venable SUPERCALA.COM "A poignant story set in a clever plot amidst exceptional performances." Claudia Puig USA TODAY

"Festive like happiness, buoyant like romance, fiery like a new love, and shattered like a broken heart." Alex Sandell JUICY CEREBELLUM "So clever that our brain hurts." Chuck Schwartz CRANKY CRITIC® "Wholly romantic, but Kaufman focuses less on the grand and sappy, and more on those moments where a heartstring tug is inexplicable to anyone besides those doing the pulling." Nick Rogers STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER "Just your everyday, surreal, sweet, old-fashioned, science-fiction-flavored romance that tugs at your heart as it blows your mind." James Rocchi NETFLIX

At A Glance

"Brilliant, an endlessly clever, funny and strangely moving story that will leave viewers with a warm heart and smoke curling out of their ears." Peter Sobczynski CRITIC DOCTOR

A thousand films, a million films and still, somewhere, out there, someone has just come up with a new idea for another one. How do they do it. I like you often wonder. The fact is, not all ideas make it to the screen. It's a long process from idea, to story, screenplay, financing, casting, production, distributing the film, before we see it on the big screen. It is a tough process. Something I've pointed out a number of ocassions. But sometimes having an idea of what you want to put in a script can come at the least expected moment. Just ask director Michel Gondry, who came up with the idea behind "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".
Gondry was having dinner with friend, Pierre Bismuth, in London. What he proposed that night was, "what if you received a card in the mail that stated you had been erased from someone’s memory, and that you should no longer attempt to contact them?". Gondry had read Charlie Kaufman’s original screenplay for "Being John Malkovich" and admits he desired making a movie with him. "His writing inspires me," says Gondry. "Soon, I had a completely different idea of how I should do this movie. It became about memories. How we are our memories, and how our memories affect our lives. Losing them, before you die, is tragic." Tragic indeed, especially if you happen to have a member of your family suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer's Disease, or perhaps brain trauma which affects memory after an accident. But getting back to that story, Charlie Kaufman remembers, "Michel came to me with this idea. He asked me if I wanted to develop it into a screenplay and said, ‘Do you want to try to work on the pitch?’ I like Michel and I liked his videos. But first it had to be written, which “took me three years," he admits, explaining that "I knew I had to do this other script first ["Adaptation"], and then when I finally got to this one, I was like, ‘I have no idea how to do it.’" Mean time Gondry started work on filming another Kaufman work, "Human Nature". The collaboration during the film brought the two men together as they got to know each other better.
"Being John Malkovich" producer Steve Golin says, "the two complement each other. Michel is truly gifted at visualizing. But he also has a lot of soul, which I think is sometimes lacking from people who come from a more visual background. But with Michel, there’s a lot of humanity. Charlie is probably the most imaginative writer that I’ve had the opportunity to work with. He creates characters and situations that are relatable but very unusual and he also has very visual ideas." "Human Nature" producer Anthony Bregman elaborated by adding, "Charlie’s screenplays are always surprising and intellectually rigorous, and also very emotional. Michel’s work is characterized by stories within stories, unfolding within each other, Chinese boxes of complication. This was a project that had very strong elements of both the writer and the director from the beginning, on every page. The thrill of working with both of them is their incredible imaginations." There's plenty of imagination in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", thanks to Kaufman's desire to "depict something more realistic" in this unusual telling of a beautiful love story. "I think I always have in mind that I want to do something that reflects what I think is true,"he says, "or at least is true in my life." So does that mean these are depictions from his life experiences? No as he explains, they "don’t have anything to do with my life. Maybe they have something to do with the life of people who make those movies, but not mine," Kaufman said. " This comes with warts and all, and I refuse to put a moral on it." And it's a fact that he made a descision not to talk to Gondry "until I turned in the first draft. It’s like, you have to let me do it and then once you see it we can talk. Because it took me so long, because of the other things I had to do, it was very frustrating for Michel." And the result of that writing was? "When I finished writing this, I was sort of aware that this was probably less of a comedy than anything I’ve written before." It was an impressive piece of work. Just ask the two producers.
Bregman recalls, "I sent Charlie an e-mail saying that I had finally read a love story which felt to me like the perfect telling of one, the love story I had always wanted to see. With warmth and emotion, it starts off at the point where two people are tired of each other. Then it moves backwards, telling how they got that way, to the beginning, that first blush of attraction. Then it wraps around itself and goes back to the end again, so that when these two characters get back into their relationship, they do it with the knowledge of what their relationship will become. That was the first time I had seen anything like that in a script." His fellow producer Steve Golin states, "It’s a very honest movie in terms of what the difficulties in a relationship are. People will be able to relate to Joel and Clementine in this relationship, the good and the bad." And what did Michel Golin, the guy with an idea think of the finished script? His view of the story extends well beyond relationships: "It’s about memories, how we are our memories, how our memories affect our life, and how losing memories is a tragedy."
In the final wash, perhaps the best way to describe the end product is, there are good films, very good films and really good films. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is exceptionaly good. Truely a love story with a difference. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" will leave you wide-eyed, amazed, and yes, throughly entertained. Especially those who believe that Jim Carrey is only a whacko comedian. As I said, this is a very different film indeed. A real eye opener. Cast & Crew Bytes "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" was directed by Michel Gondry ["Human Nature", "One Day" and "Pecan Pie"], screenplay written by Charlie Kaufman ["Being John Malkovich", "Human Nature", "Adaptation" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"], produced by Anthony Bregman ["The Ice Storm", "Human Nature" and "Lovely and Amazing"] and Steve Golin ["Being John Malkovich", "Bounce" and "Nurse Betty"], costume design by Melissa Toth ["One Way Out", "Too Tired To Die", "You Can Count on Me" and "The Perfect Score"], with original music by Jon Brion ["Hard Eight", "Magnolia", and "Punch-Drunk Love"] and cinematograhpy by Ellen Kuras ["Postcards from America", "He Got Game", "Blow" and "Analyze That"].
"Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind stars Jim Carrey ["Man on the Moon", "The Majestic", "Bruce Almighty" and "pecan Pie"], Kate Winslett ["Heavenly Creatures", "Titanic", "Quills", "Iris" and "The Life Of David Gale"], Kirsten Dunst ["Drop Dead Gorgeous", "Dick", "Spider-Man I & II", Mona Lisa Smile"], Mark Ruffalo [Rough Trade", "You Can Count on Me", "Windtalkers" and "In The Cut"], Elijah Wood ["Forever Young", "North", "Ash Wednesday" and "LOR Trilogy"] and Academy Award winner Tom Wilkinson ["The Full Monty", "The Patriot", "In The Bedroom" and "Girl With A Pearl Earring"] as Dr Howard Mierzwiak. The Story

"An amazingly complex and yet strikingly affecting look at love, life and memory that gives us one of the great movie love stories ever told." Glenn Whipp LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

Joel is hopelessly in love with Clementine Kruczynski. Everything seems perfect. He's finally found someone he really wants to spend his life with. But then, something strange happens. It's as though Clementine has never known him. He's suddenly become a complete stranger. And it appears he has been replaced by another man. Distraught, Joel struggles to come to grips with how one minute life is deliriously estatic and now he's being stone-walled. Then he receives a card from a Dr Howard Mierzwiak. It explains that Clementine Kruczynski has undergone a proceedure which has erased every memory of him from her mind. She no longer wishes to see him, hear from him or speak to him. Still desperately in love, knowing there is no future without Celmentine and suffering too much anguish, Joel decides to see Dr Mierzwiak. He will erase her from his mind forever. In the dead of night, as he sleeps, Dr Mierzwiak's technition goes to work erasing every memory from Joel's mind. Suddenly he notices something strange. The patient appears to be wide awake. How can that be happening? Deep inside his brain a journey has started. It's as though he is reliving every moment with Clementine. He doesn't want to lose her. He wants to remember. You can run Joel, but can you hide from Dr Mierzwiak, who can find and destroy every memory. Run Joel run. As fast as you can. The Verdict "Only a fool would fail to recognise that this is one marvellous movie. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslett are perfect as Joel and Clementine. The storyline may confuse some viewers initially, but don't worry, all will be revealed in this wicked love story penned by the acclaimed script writer Charlie Kaufman. A deleriously wonderful love story. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". The answer is in the title. No hesitation in saying that "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is an enthralling, witty, beatifully constructed production aptly described as a delirious joy to experience. Most Highly Recommended." The Cast

Jim Carrey Kate Winslet Gerry Robert Byrne Elijah Wood Thomas Jay Ryan Mark Ruffalo Jane Adams David Cross Kirsten Dunst Tom Wilkinson Ryan Whitney Debbon Ayer Lola Daehler Deirdre O'Connell Lauren Adler Ellen Pompeo

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Joel Barish Clementine Kruczynski Train Conductor Patrick Frank Stan Carrie Rob Mary Dr Howard Mierzwiak Young Joel Joel's Mother Young Clementine Hollis Rollerblader Naomi

The Crew Directed by Michel Gondry Produced by Anthony Bregman & Steve Golin executive producer David L Bushell Story by Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry/Pierre Bismuth Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman Original Music by Jon Brion Cinematography by Ellen Kuras Film Editing by Valdís Óskarsdóttir Casting by Blythe Cappello & Jeanne McCarthy Production Design by Dan Leigh Art Direction by David Stein Set Decoration by Ron von Blomberg Costume Design by Melissa Toth Makeup Department Kyra Panchenko Production Manager Ray Angelic Run Time 107 minutes Rated M15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2004 - Focus Pictures - All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2004 - Impact Internet Services & The Movie Pages - All Rights Reserved