The film is clever and unique and includes superb performances from Kate Winslet and Jim Carey. Carey flexes his acting muscles once again as he shows his ability to effectively portray a quirky, unhappy character in a dramatic emotional circumstance. The character of Clementine enters the film as an enigma and ends similarly. Winslet captures this ambiguity beautifully as she works the character into a charming and extremely likable force. Tom Wilkinson offers a solid performance as the doctor and Mark Ruffalo works well as his awkward assistant. Kirsten Dunst gives an above par performance despite some occasional overacting. Elijah Wood is really the only misfit in the picture as he comes off as just a bit too young for the role.

With a complex script and a misleading title, director Michael Gondry (who also directed Charlie Kaufman’s Human Nature) has created one of the most cinematically pleasant films of all time. While his style is truly a matter of taste, the film has a flow and style that is difficult to equate. The digital and focus effects are truly sensational and though the director practically functions as another character in the film, with an overwhelming presence in every scene, the film prospers because of these efforts. For a story that takes place primarily inside one man’s brain, Gondry exercises a wide variety of cinematic resources in order to make the film understandable and groundbreaking at the same time. In this kind of story, the audience depends on the director to guide the way and Gondry certainly does an exceptional job of shining light onto the unconscious mind.

Ultimately, it is screenwriter Charlie Kaufman who steals the show. The film starts out a bit disjointed but it does not take long for all the elements to cohesively join together. Kaufman is notorious for layering his films and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is no exception. He balances the worlds of modern science with the nuances of an ordinary relationship. Kaufman succeeds where other “love stories” fail: he avoids a definitive ending. He gives the viewer access to the most intimate facets of a relationship and then lets us go home. How we view the relationship on screen and compare it to our own is what makes this film special. Kaufman is a master of breaking down basic human relationships and once again he shows how deep he can actually go. The end result is a profound and unforgettable look at one of life’s most common practices.