I liked Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the clever script and the visuals. My heart has a soft sympathetic spot for goofy, maladjusted individuals trying to get by. Moreover, the literal disintegration of memories was a joy to watch, together with the visual representation of a mental landscape where geographical distance and physical presence have no meaning.

Justin appears to hate the movie (and Kaufman) for its narcissism. After all, Joel isn't really speaking to Clementine in his memories. He's actually interacting with his idea of Clementine.

(This of course begs the question of what relationships really consist of -- do we really fall in love with people? Or ideas of people?)

So Joel is essentially playing with his own mind, and this does follows Kaufman's tendency towards obsessive / narcissistic scripts where the audience endures his (or a character's) navel-gazing. The worst culprit is of course, Adaptation.

The fact that Joel is essentially messing within the confines of his head on a solo adventure reveals some major plotholes and a deus ex machina. The role of Patrick is there specifically to trigger Joel's resistance. And how did Joel know where to go at the end? If his memories of Clementine were all wiped out, you would have to conclude that there must have been something beyond memory that egged him on to go. I suppose you could attribute that to some concept of the Subconscious or Unconscious (and indeed Mary's and Clementine's behaviour indicate that love is more than memories, coincidence and conscious choice).

So is love hardwired in us somehow? Or predetermined? Eternal Sunshine seems to indicate through well-paced clever visuals, quirky characters and good dialogue that there is some innate element to attraction beyond the conscious. Depending on your outlook on life specifically your opinion of love, this is either depressing, uplifting or trivial.

In all, Eternal Sunshine is a clever film. Interesting and funny with bubbly performances from all. Justin calls it "psychotherapy for the masses". At S$8.50, it's a cheap but engaging thrill.

btw, Lacuna, Inc