Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Audiophilander (A) on March 20, 2004 at 22:28:58

In Reply to: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind posted by rico on March 20, 2004 at 12:53:29:

... my wife and I and one of our friends caught this movie earlier today and none of us thought it was worthwhile. I liked it best, but in spite of my efforts to appreciate it I found the story pretentious in the extreme, mostly due to Charlie Kaufman's script. The concept and backwards filming technique was okay, it's been done before very effectively in films like Memento, but overall I felt that CK's story was uninvolving and at the same time grossly manipulative. The performances were generally fine, with Jim Carry pulling off some of his finest dramatic acting yet, and Kirsten Dunst and Kate Winslet were well cast, but between Kaufman's twisted self-indulgent screenplay and Gondry's jerky hand-held camera direction I couldn't personally recommend ESoTSM without having a dose of Dramamine handy.

Try to keep in mind that my opinion was the most favorable one in this small band of weary filmgoers! My wife absolutely loathed this movie and considers it time wasted that she'll never get back! Also, she vowed NEVER to watch another film Charlie Kaufman has scripted, bearing in mind that she hasn't liked any of the films to which he has been attributed screenwriting credit to date, so this is not all that unexpected. BTW, our friend was even more adamant in his distaste for this movie; he actually left the cinema half-way through the showing, which is something he rarely does unless folks in the audience become too distracting for him to enjoy the film (i.e., babies crying without intervention, loud obnoxious viewers, etc.).

FTR, I'm sure that those who appreciate ESoTSM have extremely refined tastes, and the reviews have been overwhelmingly good, but obviously this isn't everybody's cup'a tea.

AuPh