Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindreview by Jeffrey Overstreet |
posted 3/19/2004
5 of 5

Darrell Manson (Hollywood Jesus) says, "Faith, like love, depends on remembering. As with Joel and Clementine's love, to lose those memories is to lose something too dear to lose, even if it seems not to be working. Like other relationships, our relationship with God has times in which it may not seem to be working. If our memories of what God has meant to us and of what God has done fade away, we are truly left alone. Sometimes our memories are all that we have to keep us together."
from Film Forum, 04/22/04
Charlie Kaufman's latest script, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed with vigor and cleverness by Michel Gondry, drew mixed reviews from religious press critics when it first opened.
This week, Michael Leary (The Matthew's House Project) joins the ranks of those who find profound insight in this bewildering love story. He says, "Of all of his scripts to date, Eternal Sunshine is Kaufman's most direct. It is difficult to miss the series of moments in the script that point outside of themselves, beyond the screen, and right into the heart of the audience. Joel and Clementine channel the unspeakable mix of hope and regret that few directors have been able to lay their finger on. Don't watch this film if you have a few memories you can only revisit with a heartsick smile, it will only reacquaint you with their potency. But all of this radical sentimentality is put into play to service a vision of love and relationships that we rarely see in film. This is brave stuff for Hollywood."
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