message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

                      
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind   Rated R
Directed by Michel Gondry. Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet.

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One of the tragic side effects of our fast-paced and self-absorbed culture is the diminishment of relationships of fidelity.  Cohabitation and serial monogamy, together with a high percentage of failed marriages, all stand witness to how hard it is to make a life-long vow of love to another person.  Breaking up is painful and traumatic.  Fortunately, the good people at Lacuna Incorporated have perfected a technique that is able to erase those memories from you mind.  As Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, the founder of Lacuna states: “Technically speaking, the process is brain damage, but a mild form, similar to a bad hangover”.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the anti-love story of Joel (Carrey) and Clementine (Winslet), who fall in love and then erase each other out of love through state-of-the-art technology.  To say anything more is to spoil the many ingenious surprises of Eternal Sunshine, the latest cockeyed fable from writer Charlie Kaufman, who also penned Adaptation, Being John Malcovich, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  Not only does this film jump all over time and space, but it is simultaneously cynical, romantic, and hopeful about love and the human condition.  The film also serves as a poignant recollection of the value of memory.  This is a thoughtful and clever black comedy for those who are up to the challenge.  Any film that quotes both Alexander Pope and Huckleberry Hound is okay by me.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating: Three halos.  (An amazing film about the resiliency of love in even the most seemingly hopeless situations.) Two pitchforks. (Occasional strong language, recreational drug use, some scenes of sexual suggestiveness.)

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