i heart huckabees | eternal sunshine

i must say that regardless of what it might sound like i’m saying, i enjoyed both films completely.  perhaps a strange way to put it, but completely because i’ll identify where i thought the films perhaps were a little too generous in their respective narrations, but at no point did it detract from my enjoyment of them both.

i heart huckabees was hillariously funny.  i get the feeling that perhaps around the globe, the philosophy presented in this film was seen as quite impressive.  it isn’t really.  it’s quite simplified – which is no problem, because the philosophy in the content matter is actually beside the point of the film.  the point of the film, however, i thought was a little bit safe – what do i mean – hmmm.

to better explain, i’m sorry but i have to revert to anime.  in Haibane Renmei, one of the characters has a spiritual or emotional dilema, but she faces it fully and it would be fair to say with little or no support or influences to guide her through it.  this character fully owns her redemption, or her salvation, her happy ending, because she earns it.  she faces her fear and self-loathing to come out the other end of it a more mature and grown-up person – a character whose undrstanding has grown.
a similar anime but nowhere near as well written or produced, is someday’s dreamers.  i still enjoyed this anime, especially the music, but there is a character who has a similar dilema.  of-course the dynamics of each vary quite widely between the two animes, but the character’s dilema is similar enough.  unfortunately as the anime plays out, he is given his answer, his solution, by someone else.  he doesn’t have to face it and come to his own understanding of it.  one of the other chracters quite neatly sorts it all out for him.  to me he didn’t have to do anything to understand it, and quite honestly, wasn’t about to any day soon.

this difference i think, is what i almost don’t like about both i heart huckabees and eternal sunshine of a spotless mind.  the content is very interesting, but in a way, the characters in both get to cheat a bit by having certain things revealed to them that then change their outlook on life in general.  it isn’t really an unforgivable narration point, but i find that it makes the point of the film slightly less sharp than it could potentially be.  i am a big fan of films that actually don’t explain anything to you at all, so not only the characters are given no resolve, but neither are you as the viewer – the resolve is left for you to sort-out.  in any case, eternal sunshine especially i thought was brilliant, immersive, atmospheric, and quite enjoyable, but i found it simplified.

i suppose this slight simplification of, i suppose we can say quite dramatic elements of life, isn’t really a bad thing.  again it seems the films have followed standard north-amerikan film-making guidelines where everything must be neatly explained to the audience just in case they don’t get it.  for me though, it makes the films less of great explorations of life, and more like spiritual fairytales.  i’m not saying there’s no place for such fairytales – i remember the first time i was touched by one – phenomenon was the first film to reach out and touch my sense of spirituality, if you like, as post-modern wank as that sounds – but the terminology serves, if only just.

i suppose i’ve half grown out of the fairytales now that i watch such high-reaching anime films and series’, but that doesn’t mean i don’t enjoy them once in a while.  i heart huckabees made me laugh a lot, and had good points to make – eternal sunshine actually left me feeling quite warm – and of-course it’s a romance, so i enjoyed it quite a bit more.  two excellent films all-round.

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Commentary
April 24, 2010

Good-god the structure of my writing was horrible back then.

I’ve since learnt to just accept these kinds of films for what they are, regardless of their philosophy-lite approach. If they’re fun and entertaining, that’s fine. If there’s a little more to it and it provokes some tiny thought, then that’s an added bonus. These days I’m fairly savvy with my expectations and I know the gems when I see them.