Director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman teamed up for this sad yet undeniably romantic exercise in pop surrealism, in which Joel (Jim Carrey) discovers that his ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has had all memories of their former relationship removed; when Joel opts for the same procedure, he ends up having second thoughts and fights to preserve her image in the hidden corners of his brain. Even though it eventually wears out its welcome with its ultimately exhausting cleverness and quirkiness (as is usually the case with Gondry’s work — and Kaufman’s, at that), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has more originality — and unflinching emotion — than most stories of heartbreak and heartache out there. Both Carrey (stretching his wings a bit, and nailing it) and Winslet are excellent, as is Tom Wilkinson as the genius doc behind it all.
