Product Description

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/04/2005 Starring: Jim Carrey Elijah Wood Run time: 108 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10085 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2005-01-04
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Screenwriters rarely develop a distinctive voice that can be recognized from movie to movie, but the ornate imagination of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) has made him a unique and much-needed cinematic presence. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a guy decides to have the memories of his ex-girlfriend erased after she's had him erased from her own memory--but midway through the procedure, he changes his mind and struggles to hang on to their experiences together. In other hands, the premise of memory-erasing would become a trashy science-fiction thriller; Kaufman, along with director Michel Gondry, spins this idea into a funny, sad, structurally complex, and simply enthralling love story that juggles morality, identity, and heartbreak with confident skill. The entire cast--Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, and more--give superb performances, carefully pitched so that cleverness never trumps feeling. A great movie. --Bret Fetzer

DVD features
With the Oscar restrictions on screeners starting in 2002, studios have found another outlet to get their movies into the hands of Academy voters--releasing the film on DVD before the balloting. Thus this new edition of the eccentric comedy comes with a photo book stuffed with the superlatives the critics rained on the film; the kind of swag often thrown to Oscar voters. The first disc is the same as the initial widescreen release; the second disc has over an hour of interesting extras. The behind-the-scenes featurettes showcase director Michel Gondry's unique approach to use theatrical tricks and old fashion, in-camera effects over CGI wizardry. These camera tests and snippets of unused scenes are more fascinating than the 20-minute deleted and extended scene section. Plus there are plenty of jokes about Gondry's heavy accent--most by the director himself. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
Yes, it's another attempt by the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman to replace the antique notion of cinema as persuasive entertainment with that of cinema as some strange, whirring device for the disorientation of the human brain. Jim Carrey plays Joel and Kate Winslet plays Clementine (and, yes, she has heard all the jokes), who fall in love and out of love and back in love again. Fair enough, but Kaufman and the director, Michel Gondry, run the whole story in rewind, as if to prove the Shakespearean theorem that journeys end in lovers' meeting. Just to complicate the issue, Tom Wilkinson plays a dodgy doctor who can, for a fee, wipe the memory of a chosen individual, adored or otherwise, from your mind-a treatment of which both Joel and Clementine avail themselves. The conceit writhes with implausibility, yet it also gives off flashes of high-tech, low-down beauty, as scenes of tenderness begin to go grievously blank before the sweethearts' eyes. Carrey's latest effort to elude, or at least refine, his looney persona is more sincere than convincing, and it is left to Winslet, at once fierce and footloose, to carry the show. On the eighth viewing, say, the damn thing might even make sense. With Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and a blissed-out Kirsten Dunst-what is she on? -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Moving And Intelligent, Exploring Love in an Unconventional Way
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is a fantastic film, but that's not surprising. I've come to expect excellence from Charlie Kaufman, who always makes seemingly unfilmable plots into a brilliant screenplay. Michel Gondry, who directed Human Nature, directs with sensitivity and ambition, making the visual effects of memories being lost look realistic. The casting choices were unusual but perfect, allowing a group of talented actors to step out of their comfort zones and show how good they truly are. The leads, Jim Carey and Kate Winslet, are perfectly chosen. Carey plays the quiet, intelligent, Kaufman-like guy who doesn't know how to interact with others with Winslet playing the arty, rough, daring girl who opens up his world and shatters it down the road with an impulsive decision. The supporting cast, Kirsten Dunst speficially, also give wonderful performances. Such great work was put into this from all ends, and the result was a truly wonderful film.

I wouldn't say that "Eternal Sunshine" is as brilliant as Kaufman's Adaptation, but it is more universal. I'm partial to Adaptation because, as a screenwriter myself, the way Kaufman delves into that pain and longing and frustration a writer experiences rang so true to me, whereas "Eternal Sunshine" is a film that is not really specific to anyone. It's about love, what people mean to each other, how deeply the memories we have effect us, and even destiny. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be intrigued, and you'll certainly leave the film with the intention to see it again. A great movie.

9/10

Life is about your relationship with your inner demons
A strange movie about memory. Jim Carry is an unlovable schmuck, but for some reason he meets this wacky, gorgeous girl who's also quite horny. Slowly we get to see him interact with this girl, slowly we realize that there's much more behind their relationship. Why? Because it's a film from a Charlie Kaufmann script, where anything can happen. The couple has tender, happy moments that are very memorable (or memory-like) in an iconic kind of way. These are devices we refer back to, they make the movie feel like it is warm, comfortable, and we root for the heroes who struggle against what they are doing to themselves. Do they know that they were destined to be together? Things get weird - once we figure out what is going on, we get some back story. And then that back story gets back story. And then that back story also gets back story. And then the back story becomes the only story that there ever was. Because it's destiny. Complaints? None, really, although Kirstin Dunst acting horny is a bit awkward - she doesn't do horny well. Elijah Wood is good and creepy. And Jim Carrey - well, he can act... like a dork. I sometimes wonder how many people out there have so much time for resolving their inner demons that they don't really need to do regular things like work, cook, watch TV...

A BRUTALLY HONEST EXPLORATION OF LOVE
I was not a fan of Jim Carrey's until I saw this film. I bought it because Charlie Kaufman wrote the screenplay, and I loved BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, and ADAPTATION. I have, to date, worn out two discs of THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE....

The reason I love this movie so much is I've never seen one- ever- that was able to encapsulate with such terrible clarity, and frank eloquence, the nature of love, and ( specifically ) why we love. Though this masterpiece is extremely moving, hysterical, and lethally ascerbic, it is anything but cute.

Jim Carrey should have gotten an Oscar for his performance, as the quiet, loner, Joel, and Kate Winslet was equally wonderful. The entire cast was superb, in fact. The direction, and cinematography was great, but the story was genius.

Be smart, and get a little Sunshine....