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Great, Great, Great movie. A different angle than LiT, but a great "Think Piece"

Highly Recommend!!

i can't believe you mentioned this! i'm glad you did, i saw it for the first time on Saturday! it's really an amazing (but bizzarre) movie. It's definately not for everyone, just like LiT, but Charlie Kaufman wrote an amazing script and Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are outstanding as Joel and Clementime. (i guess Jim Carrey can be a good dramatic actor after all...kinda like Bill) Anyways, this movie gets my stamp of approval...its not quite in LiT's league (a little darker, doesn't give u that same feeling) but its a nice little movie

"[quote:88c4e54f51="jml98"]i can't believe you mentioned this! i'm glad you did, i saw it for the first time on Saturday! it's really an amazing (but bizzarre) movie. It's definately not for everyone, just like LiT, but Charlie Kaufman wrote an amazing script and Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are outstanding as Joel and Clementime. [/quote:88c4e54f51]
James Bowman, the critic for the once-defunct [i:88c4e54f51]American Spectator,[/i:88c4e54f51] once had a great line that some movie was good at what American movies are good at: great costumes, locations, photography, and effects -- not much on characters and plot. Jim Carrey's character is a simple pathetic loser with nothing to recommend him, and the girl is the type you'll stay the hell away from (if you know anything about women). This means that you won't want them to get together, so the movie is nothing more than a cute puzzle, like that stupid [i:88c4e54f51]Momento[/i:88c4e54f51]."

hmm...i'm guessing you don't like the movie then johnmonkey? i think you're looking at the movie as if it could actually happen...it's a fantasy movie .. yes in real life, Joel would prob stay a loser. In real life Clementine is trouble, and I wouldn't want her, but i dunno...i just like the movie...

i respect your opinion, though, johnmonkey.

"[quote:8d010404f2="jml98"]i think you're looking at the movie as if it could actually happen...it's a fantasy movie[/quote:8d010404f2]
Yes, but I want to like someone in a movie, especially if it's essential for enjoying it. Bah humbug."

I sort of liked Eternal Sunshine, though not greatly so. It had some heart, though there is something cold and ugly about it, like Being John Malcovich, which was really cold and ugly. Many of these new guys, Kaufman, Wes Anderson, etc, seem to be missing something that Sofia Coppola's stuff has in spades - real emotion, beauty

johnmonkey wrote: Yes, but I want to like someone in a movie, especially if it's essential for enjoying it. Bah humbug.

fair enough

Has anyone watched Garden State lately? I think its a great movie, not as good as LiT but very strange and dark at times but also funny as hell(smart funny just like Lit)! I didn't see that Sunshine movie but I heard a song by Beck I think "everybody's gotta learn sometimes"? or something and its great, I am going to rent the movie this week or buy it or something.

That song is on the soundtrack, so it very well could be....If i remember correctly it plays during the credits....

After seeing this movie for like the third time in a month, I'd like to see if I could get this topic started up again.....
I loved this movie. True these characters were not as likeable as our L.I.T. characters. Bob and Charlotte make us feel what they are feeling by watching them. We can somehow relate to their emotion for a longing for someone.Their story is a story of "what is now..and what could be". Joel and Clementine also make us feel what they are feeling by watching them. We can relate to their emotion for longing for the past with someone we thought would be in our life forever.Many people, while it is unfortunate, have a relationship with someone that they constantly bicker with. It's that "Can't live with them,Can't live without them " mentality.
Both stories to me are great awesome movies, but they both are different..stirring up different emotions that I and others can relate to.
They both have very different endings, but they both leave me with that same feeling of happiness and a touch of sadness.

johnmonkey wrote:Yes, but I want to like someone in a movie, especially if it's essential for enjoying it. Bah humbug.

That's true. I like the movie, but I can't help but admit that Joel is a character with no substance (Jim Carrey gives him a personality, but beyond that Joel is just tofu). I feel for him but I don't necessarily want to be friends with the guy. And I don't think I need to say more for Clementine.

So I guess it's true that anyone who wants to like the characters in a good movie won't find Eternal Sunshine to be for them.

Boo Hoo

"[quote:c478740d43="Just Like Honey..."]That's true. I like the movie, but I can't help but admit that Joel is a character with no substance (Jim Carrey gives him a personality, but beyond that Joel is just tofu). I feel for him but I don't necessarily want to be friends with the guy. And I don't think I need to say more for Clementine.

So I guess it's true that anyone who wants to like the characters in a good movie won't find Eternal Sunshine to be for them.

Boo Hoo[/quote:c478740d43]
I can't tell if you're agreeing with me or not. But, I shouldn't have insisted that I like the characters, only that I need to care if they should stop breathing. I didn't feel anything for those two twerps; I didn't like the hokey science fiction of the plot; I didn't like the self-consciousness of the whole thing. And I didn't even get excited when Dunst was dancing around.

Bah and humbug."

Well, I disagree with you in regards to the characters. If you really want to see characters that you don't care if they stop breathing (and may even hope that they do) see Sideways.

Just Like Honey...wrote:

I can't help but admit that Joel is a character with no substance (Jim Carrey gives him a personality, but beyond that Joel is just tofu).

The character of Joel is an introvert. He seems to be the kind of guy that no one knew in high school. The kind of guy who had a hard time expressing himself other than in drawings. He doesn't have a personality because he's not a personable individual. People, generally, aren't interested in getting to know, let alone care for, someone who cannot communicate back. Lack of communication from people will make you the way Joel is.

In this movie, it wasn't necessary for me, to like or care about the characters. It was almost important in a way that they were characters that on the surface you wouldn't care about. Loners like Joel and complciated women like Clementine still underneath it all want the same things any of us "normal people" want.

It was the questions that the film raised that I found intriguing: mainly - even if you knew a meaningful and fulfilling relationship was eventually going to end - and with some amount of pain - would you do it again? Maybe it's like a really fun late night that might involve some drinking - and you wake up saying "I'll never do that again", but you do.

Joel and Clemetine to me seemed to say they would do it all over knowing the result. That's what the OK's at the end meant to me (though others interpreted differently.) I'm not sure I'd want to go my whole life doing that (as the original script I believe intended to imply - showing them at an advanced age going through the relationship yet again.) But if it was really special - maybe I would do it another time.

The other question is - is it possible that we just can't help ourselves? That they met again (and would again and again) implies that the answer is that we really can't help ourselves.

Now the situation is different (to me at least) if there are more people than the two individuals involved - like the Kirsten Dunst character and her boss - since the wife stood to keep getting hurt. Maybe we can't help ourselves - so all the more reason to keep the memory so it doesn't happen again. I know a little about that feeling.

I JUST saw that there is a 2-Disc version of this film on DVD thats been out since January. I hadn't seen it anywhere until today.
Does anyone know if L.I.T. will get the same treatment from Focus Features anytime soon?
If your a fan of Eternal than this DVD is amazing..definitely a must own.

If there is a new "LIT" DVD put out, I would think that it would not be so soon. Of course, "ESOTSM" is not an old movie, either.

I've been listening to the Beck song from the soundtrack alot lately. I find that song to be amazing,much as I do the entire LIT soundtrack. Are there any movie soundtracks that anyone would recommend that's in the Eternal/LIT Sound style?
I've been listening to alot of melloncollie music lately..stuff like Jeff Buckley,Leonard Cohen,Damien Rice,Portishead,Radiohead,etc.

I bought the DVD for 'Eternal Sunshine' purely on the basis of its reviews, and was more than a little disappointed. I didn't like the characters and it seemed to me that they went out of their way to make the worst possible choices in every situation. I dragged myself through 2/3rds of the film and I've never bothered to watch the rest. I don't know and don't care what happened to these bozos. I agree with the person who rated this alongside the awful and pretentious 'Memento'. There are too many mediocre films getting too much credit, and too many truly great films (like LIT) getting none.

"[quote:6b1392eccc="Beery"]I bought the DVD for 'Eternal Sunshine' purely on the basis of its reviews, and was more than a little disappointed. I didn't like the characters and it seemed to me that they went out of their way to make the worst possible choices in every situation. I dragged myself through 2/3rds of the film and I've never bothered to watch the rest. I don't know and don't care what happened to these bozos. I agree with the person who rated this alongside the awful and pretentious 'Memento'. There are too many mediocre films getting too much credit, and too many truly great films (like LIT) getting none.[/quote:6b1392eccc]

I agree and have posted before that Sunshine was crap.

Given the awards and nominations reaped by LIT, I think "getting none" is overstating it a bit."