minding spotless sunshines

I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night, and it was amazing. We discussed Jim Carrey’s performance (probably his best to date) in the car on the way home, and the visual effects in the movie were just really fun to watch. One thing that really struck me was that it was really well written. I think I remember noticing that with Being John Malkovitch too, so now I want to check out all of Charlie Kaufman’s other films. I guess, now that I check IMDB, that I’ve already seen all of them but Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I’ll have to watch that one soon. It was just this last Tuesday that we saw Human Nature, which has been rattling around in my brain ever since.

I don’t know for sure who did this first, but I think the Blare Witch Project popularized the concept of making fake websites for movies before they come out. Googling for eternal sunshine reveals the website for Lacuna Inc. the company in the movie that removes your memories for you. Funny stuff, and probably not all that far off in terms of technology. I wonder about some legal ramifications though.

Oh yeah, back to the writing… the name of the movie comes from this Alexander Pope poem called Eloisa to Abelard (line 209). I’ve only read a little bit of Pope when it was required for one of my “reading the classics” classes in college. I didn’t like him much then, and my opinion hasn’t really changed, (but I wonder what Dr Bombay thinks of him). Those are some kick ass lines quoted in the movie though.

    How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d;

Anyway, the movie was really fucking good. I started to get a little teary at the end of it, but it wasn’t a sad movie! I think that, as weird as it sounds, I almost started crying from happiness. Does that make me a sap?

UPDATE: It’s Charlie Kaufman, not Andy Kaufman (as I’d originally written). Poor Andy’s dead, or anyway he wants us to think he is. I also forgot or didn’t bother to mention previously the interview with Kaufman and Gondry over at The Onion AV Club that I read a few days ago. Also, I wrote this entry before I knew that of the four of us who went to see the movie who have blogs, the other three already had. Nate, Dr. Bombay and Laura all beat me to it.