The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This is a wonderful movie about love and how people hurt each other, and all adults should see it. Some of the details of the romance are rather...problematic (and of course the main character live together -- Hollywood believes that only sex after marriage is wrong). Still, the movie itself is so good, and has such a pro-life, pro-true love, pro-commitment message, that it seems churlish to punish the rest of the movie for not knowing any better. One could in fact argue that the living together bit is exactly what the target audience is doing, and therefore that anything else would be an unrealistic examination of the problems of modern romance.

Mostly, though, this is a movie about the problem of pain. If you could remove all unpleasant experiences from your brain, our society says that would be a good and healthy thing. This movie says we have to have risk and unpleasantness or live sterile, unloving lives. The same people who love us will at some point hurt us, and we aren't going to be all that nice to them, either. Love is all about forgivemess, reparation, and trying again.

Mostly, though, this movie is amazingly fun, emotional, and interesting. Even the music is wonderful. I enjoyed it very much. Go see Jim Carrey submerge himself in the character of a normal guy, and Kate Winslet create an impulsive young woman you'll like and never forget. This is science fiction for people who hate sf, and I don't begrudge it them. Don't keep reading this blog. Go!