Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 218
Fresh: 203 | Rotten: 15
A twisty, trippy, yet moving take on love, Kaufman-style.
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 4
A twisty, trippy, yet moving take on love, Kaufman-style.
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 503,889
The second feature from director Michel Gondry (Human Nature) finds the filmmaker reteaming with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for this off-the-wall romantic comedy. Jim Carrey stars as Joel Barish, a man who is informed that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of their relationship erased from her brain via an experimental procedure performed by Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). Not to be outdone, Joel decides to have the same procedure done to himself. As Mierzwiak's
R, 1 hr. 47 min.
Mar 19, 2004 Wide
Sep 28, 2004
$34.1M
Focus Features
All Critics (218) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (213) | Rotten (15) | DVD (51)
It's the kind of film that could mean more to people after they've left the theater and thought about it awhile.
There is little charm in the coupling and almost no erotic intimacy, just a series of nerve-racking conversational collisions.
The disappointment I felt at the end of Eternal Sunshine was almost crushing, simply because there were sections of it that were as daring in their emotional directness as anything I've seen in years.
[Kaufman] clearly surpasses himself.
Neither wholly cynical nor wholly romantic, Kaufman's story is a balance of smarts and sentiment.
The perfect movie about love's inevitable imperfections.
Imaginative, loopy romance is for adults only.
Michel Gondry tries to channel Fellini and ends up irrigating faulty plumbing.
This is a wonderful, often beautiful, and melancholy character study of romance, humanity, and the mind with wonderful acting, incredible surrealism and a funny and heart-wrenching story.
The film entertains for the most part and gives us a set of marvellous performances from this outstanding cast, even if it doesn't quite reach the near-genius of Kaufman's other writings.
Most imaginative and impressively executed...
Kaufman and Gondry bring out all the weirdness of the premise, sometimes eliciting disbelieving laughter, sometimes taking us to odd, chilly places.
Walking into a theater with Charlie Kaufman on the screen is like volunteering for that wacky boat trip Willy Wonka took through the chocolate factory tunnel...
Works marvel after marvel in expressing the bewildering beauty and existential horror of being trapped inside one's own addled mind, and in allegorising the self-preserving amnesia of a broken but hopeful heart.
Eternal Sunshine is fresh, heartfelt and ultimately heartbreaking in its honest portrayal of a modern relationship.
The reality is that Hollywood is such an idea poor place Kaufman tends to get more credit than he deserves for work which only occasionally rises above the level of mind games and showy sleight of hand.
It is an enchanting clutter of love and reason that will only appeal to the audience willing to take the time to see the movie and then think about it later.
A unique deconstruction of man's innate desire to avert heartache.
The kind of movie that only gets better the more you think about it and I think it cries out for repeat viewings.
The two-disc set here does a good job of fleshing out the background of the film. The bonus features make it a definite purchase for any fan.
It's a movie that careens wildly through the barricades that normally, politely cordon off narrative cinema from the rest of 'real' life.
You won't soon forget this walk down memory lane. Actually, make that a RUN down memory lane.
This is, flat out, one of the best movies I have ever seen and I must have seen it eight times already. It never grows tired. The acting is superb, the idea--that if you erase an experience from your mind has it actually happened, have you learned?--is so intriguing to me it must be hitting some pleasure button in my
February 5, 2012
Super Reviewer
A very very moving film with deep character development that you'd expect from a director like Gondry but more then you'd expect from an actor like Carrey. It's very trippy and confusing but like Inception it's so good that you dont have to get it to like it. I got the message and I loved it.
November 14, 2011
Super Reviewer
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