Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.

As the title and lead in poem suggests, I finally saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind over the weekend. I liked it, of course, but it did surprise me in a number of ways. First of all, I was expecting a movie that was going to be a wild comedic ride that overwhelmed me and the one I got was a nice quiet reflective movie, ala Lost in Translation. Not that the movie is particularly reminiscent of Lost in Translation in any sort of plot related way, but I think the two are going to share a lot of other similarities. Essentially, they’re both art house movies that are trying to make it into the mainstream scene, and I think they’re both going to have problems, because I’m not sure how accessible either of them are to mass audiences who are trained to believe that SNL comedy is funny and that Lifetime movies explore deep issues.

Also, I don’t want to be too harsh on Eternal Sunshine, because it is quite good, but I’ve also seen several movies released this year that are a good bit better, and I haven’t seen THAT many, so, if anything, I’d say it’s a bit overrated. It’s certainly a good movie, but I think it’s a step back for Kaufman after the brilliant Adaptation, which is probably explained by the absence of underrated director Spike Jonze. He’s replaced here by Michel Gondry, who doesn’t do too much to impress me, frankly.

Anyway, that’s all for your movie review of the month from me. Now, go check out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at your local video store, but only after you check out Dogville, Young Adam, and The Dreamers first, because they’re all better. Or you could check out You Got Served! instead just to spite me. Your choice.