feature,
FEATURE: Eternal Sunshine for the Broken Heart
Breakups are tough. No one can deny that, and out of all the thousands and thousands of films in Hollywood, I’ve seen only one film that can capture the pain of separation in the most visually pleasing and amazing way, and it’s Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The plot centers on Joel, played by Jim Carrey, a reserved, close-mouthed, and normal guy. It begins on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. After spontaneously deciding to skip work, Joel squeezes himself on a train to Montauk. There he meets Clementine, a free-spirited, no-bullshit, free spirited extrovert. From there, the movie continues on a path of love, heartbreak and resentment, acceptance, and by the end, finding the courage to begin again.
There are no unexpected twists or surprising revelations in this movie despite the screenwriter’s, Charlie Kaufman, telling of the story in reverse. The movie gradually reveals emotions, like peeling back a band-aid, as it shows the decay of Joel and Clementine’s relationship.
Before the movie, Director Gondry was famous for his work in music videos, working with artists and bands such as Bjork, The Rolling Stones, Beck, and The White Stripes. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he tackles realistic dialogue with a surrealist approach in visuals.
Clementine storming off while Joel chases after her, meanwhile a car drops down from the sky in the background.
(Video credit: Movieclips.com, Gif creation credit: gifs.com)
Joel walks away and it transitions from the bookstore to his friends’ home.
(Video credit: Movieclips.com, Gif creation credit: gifs.com)
The visuals aren’t flashy or overly dramatic dream sequences that are black and white or other absurdist gimmicks. No CGI, no dramatic special effects, it’s all just practical filmmaking of surrealism. Gondry directed the visuals as if it is an actual dream, close to reality, but less so. Along with this, Gondry’s ability to convey internal emotions like anger, anxiety, and dread into accurate visual cues is one of the reasons that makes the film so unique and critically acclaimed.
The Grammy-nominated score for the movie was composed by Jon Brion. The soundtrack tied together the overall atmosphere of the movie, adding intimacy and genuineness that comes to life on-screen.
The film is praised for the visuals, the score, and for the writing. But what really can be gotten from this film is the heart in it. It’s heartfelt, it’s romantic, it’s devastating, and it’s hopeful. It is a bittersweet love story, and because of that it’s one of the realest love stories of the millennium.
We see ourselves in Joel and Clementine. We join them into their relationship, into their breakup, in their confusion, in their pain. Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind holds our hand through it all, through tears and laughter.
Clementine, bopping Joel’s nose with hers before disappearing.
(Video credit: Movieclips.com, Gif creation credit: gifs.com)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind takes love in one hand and loss in the other, puts it under a magnifying glass, and asks why humans do what we can to not feel the pain of heartbreak, to make the tightening in our chests stop every time we are reminded of a person that we’ve loved but ultimately lost. //by Kiara Gabriel
0 comments: