A surprisingly enjoyable film

[indent]I'm not a big fan of Jim Carrey. Canadian or not, he tends to overact, to the point of histrionics, and he pushes things sometimes to an embarrassing level. He's not been bad in some films - The Truman Story was okay, and his overacting actually suited his role as the Riddler in Batman. But most of his other films have been too excessive to watch all the way through.

Last week I picked up a sale-priced previously-viewed copy of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. At $4.50, it was about the same cost as renting it, so I thought, what the hell, I can always resell it on eBay, and bought it.

We watched it last night, Christmas Eve.

I was flabbergasted. This film was good. Really good. Carrey, too - he played a good, dramatic role and rarely pushed the edge toward his usual self. It's funny, sad, entertaining, interesting and bizarre. Very bizarre.

The premise is vaguely sci-fi, but laid over a basic but complex romance: a couple (Joel - Carrey - and Clementine - Kate Winslet) meet, fall in love, then after a while start to lose their affection. The relationship falls apart. So far nothing out of the ordinary. Without talking to Joel, Clementine decides the relationship is over and goes to a doctor who promises to erase all of her memories of Joel.

Next time they meet, she doesn't recognize him. A befuddled Joel finds out what happened and, angry and humiliated, goes in for the same treatment to remove her from his mind. But as the memory erase proceeds, he relives his past with Clementine, good and bad, and tries to save his memories of her.

It's poignant, but never syrupy. The film pendulums between past and present, between event and memory, as the erasure removes bits and pieces. People vanish while you watch. Buildings deconstruct. It's very well done and quite convincing. Very non-traditional, too. Great film work on the memory scenes.

I really liked this movie. It's a smart film, with strong characters, good dialogue and deep emotions. My respect for Carrey skyrocketed. I was surprised Winslet managed to maintain an American accent all the way through (she's British). She is superb as Clementine. The film has some unusual twists, too, so watch it.

I was surprised it has an "R" rating because there is no nudity, less swearing than the average action flick, and sex is only suggested, not shown. There's no violence either. I suppose the R was given to warn the usual mindless-action-flick audience that this was a film Requiring intelligence.

Rated 4.5 out of 5.

The title, by the way, comes from a line in Eloisa to Abelard, a poem by Alexander Pope:

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