Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“Adaptation”) takes the audience down a rabbit hole of his personal neurosis in this distressed story about a confused guy (Jim Carrey) who falls for a mean-spirited girl (Kate Winslet) before each attempt to have their respective memories of the other person removed by an experimental psychiatrist. Although some audiences will be captivated by the now familiar American stereotype of a condescending bipolar female character, it’s Winslet’s incarnation of Clementine as a mentally volatile manipulator of weakness that makes the movie icky and distasteful. Poised as a romantic comedy, “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” is rarely funny and disintegrates into utter abstraction during its overlong running time. Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst and Tom Wilkinson give superfluous performances to Jim Carrey’s honest effort at representing a dependent male character at the end of his rope. Director Michel Gondry (“Human Nature”) tries to channel Fellini and ends up irrigating faulty plumbing.
Rated R. 108 mins. (C-) (Two Stars)