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Rating: The translation of the title of this little masterpiece was done (so clumsily) to make people, drawn to the cinema believing it to be a classic Carrey comedic romp, disappointed and start fiddling with their phones. As perverse as it may seem, I find no other explanation (setting aside drugs and/or incompetence): because, quite literally, the title should have been something like "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind." In reality, here Carrey challenges himself with a high-caliber, introspective dramatic role, one of the few in his career (it should be noted: few serious performances, but all of them outstanding: The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, The Majestic, and maybe even Number 23 - though the film isn't much to speak of), completely abandoning his facial distortions and channeling his innate expressiveness into an extraordinary performance. Since the result is astounding, one might wonder how money-hungry he must be to mainly take up those near-flops like Yes Man, which easily draw the box office. Nonetheless, in this film (of a genre hard to classify: being a breath of fresh air, it contains a bit of everything: if you will, it's a "comedy with dramatic, psychological, and romantic undertones so peculiar and visionary that it breaks into entirely different directions") everyone acts well, even that snotty Kirsten Dunst with a face like a fish. Tom Wilkinson is credible as a disenchanted and professional doctor who inexplicably found a way to remove segments of memory from people's minds (the how doesn't matter: it can be done, and that's that; the film doesn't aim to be scientifically plausible), Kate Winslet is the fulcrum of the film, after Carrey, and Frodo Baggins makes you roll your eyes, and it's better if he goes back to shaving his feet in the Shire.
The film deserves the overused label "visionary." It's a journey into a person's mind. The themes are memories, the mind's ability to cling to something to forget something else. Yes, the context is a rushed and badly ended love story between a lonely man and a girl who can't keep her mouth shut for a second. But in reality, many unconscious strings are touched upon, in a delicate and subtle, almost implicit manner. Memories shape our identity; without them, we are no longer who we were; how wonderful would it be to erase them and nullify fragments of our personality (not perfectly, as the film shows; the process is shown as ongoing, or at least, that was my impression) to remove what's causing us pain? There is no right answer, the author stages the hypotheses without overtly expressing their own opinion. Let the spectator think about it, using their sensitivity. Not only is the screenplay fantastic (lively, intelligent, and never mundane dialogues; a perfectly orchestrated, non-chronological plot) but the direction from a former "music video director" is bold and distinctive. The ability to wrap a story so layered and complex in a context usually considered frivolous and sold by the dozen as a comedy shows commendable expositional courage. The strokes of genius are plentiful, and the music, though subtly integrated, effectively performs its accompaniment role, even if I honestly expected something more significant and impactful. Original, innovative, but not avant-garde or heavy. This is the kind of cinema I would like to see more often.
The synopsis: a man discovers he has been erased (as a memory) from the mind of the girl he loved but with whom things hadn't gone well. Thus, he decides to undergo the removal process himself...
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