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Jan. 11th, 2006 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenBefore I go on about movies, let's start with some real-life happy: Happy Birthday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umeyard!!! I owe you a phone call, but it might have to wait a while, and it could be late here. I will definitely find you somehow, AIM, phone, however. Of course, if you want to tell me "Shh!! Call back when I'm not playing video games!" that's cool, too.
Happy Netflix, it likes me.
So I finally rented Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't know why it took me so long to see, everyone I knew liked it a lot, but maybe that was the problem.feiran can tell you--the more you bug me to watch something, the more I drag my heels. I guess I needed the accolade to cool off a trifle.
Anywho, I liked it. The whole thing skirted around the edge of creepiness without ever getting its toes wet in the cesspool of awkwardness. Kirsten Dunst falling in love with Tom Wilkenson (or whoever--the guy who played Falcone in Batman Begins, that guy) was more than a tad stomach-churning, but then so was the idea of her having purged him from his mind. Elijah Wood stealing panties from and trying to score with the girl who's memory he erased was potentially horrid--it's as close to rape as you get without the, you know, actual rape--and yet because there was no doubt his character would fail, it never rose to the level of threat it could have. Then there are the pissed off lovers who scrub each other out of their brains out of spite while the technicians get high and drunk and fuck around them...ayah....
Mostly, I think I liked Jim Carrey's performance. He so seldom, even in his 'serious' roles ever manages to subsume his clearly bipolar personality into the small shoes of the character. This time, as Joel, he managed to pull off the artistic schlub (I even bought the 'artist' part, even though my imagination couldn't quite get around to seeing Jim Carrey as an artist ever), and it really paid off for him. He's a goofy looking guy, no two ways about it, but instead of extending his smarmy expressions into hyperbolic hilarity, he let them sag and draw down his whole being, the weight of the world upon him always and everywhere. It was amazing.
I'm not sure if I ever warmed to Kate Winslet. She was fine, I should say that I never liked Clem so much. There were things I could about her that would attract characters like Joel and Patrick--guys who don't do well with women and who avoid or manipulate, respectively, to cover up for that--but she's no picnic herself. She's got issues that smiling and forgiving won't cover or hide. I did like her hair, though.
I wish there could have been more surprises to the film, but the style and melancholy really covered well for that. It was like watching a man revisit his memories of a dead loved one, made all the more painful for the fact that neither one had to lose the other. It was vaguely funereal, a literal cleansing of the past to open the future, which I think is one of the best ways to demonstrate the grieving process without degenerating into sap that I've seen yet.
umeyard!!! I owe you a phone call, but it might have to wait a while, and it could be late here. I will definitely find you somehow, AIM, phone, however. Of course, if you want to tell me "Shh!! Call back when I'm not playing video games!" that's cool, too.Happy Netflix, it likes me.
So I finally rented Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't know why it took me so long to see, everyone I knew liked it a lot, but maybe that was the problem.
feiran can tell you--the more you bug me to watch something, the more I drag my heels. I guess I needed the accolade to cool off a trifle.Anywho, I liked it. The whole thing skirted around the edge of creepiness without ever getting its toes wet in the cesspool of awkwardness. Kirsten Dunst falling in love with Tom Wilkenson (or whoever--the guy who played Falcone in Batman Begins, that guy) was more than a tad stomach-churning, but then so was the idea of her having purged him from his mind. Elijah Wood stealing panties from and trying to score with the girl who's memory he erased was potentially horrid--it's as close to rape as you get without the, you know, actual rape--and yet because there was no doubt his character would fail, it never rose to the level of threat it could have. Then there are the pissed off lovers who scrub each other out of their brains out of spite while the technicians get high and drunk and fuck around them...ayah....
Mostly, I think I liked Jim Carrey's performance. He so seldom, even in his 'serious' roles ever manages to subsume his clearly bipolar personality into the small shoes of the character. This time, as Joel, he managed to pull off the artistic schlub (I even bought the 'artist' part, even though my imagination couldn't quite get around to seeing Jim Carrey as an artist ever), and it really paid off for him. He's a goofy looking guy, no two ways about it, but instead of extending his smarmy expressions into hyperbolic hilarity, he let them sag and draw down his whole being, the weight of the world upon him always and everywhere. It was amazing.
I'm not sure if I ever warmed to Kate Winslet. She was fine, I should say that I never liked Clem so much. There were things I could about her that would attract characters like Joel and Patrick--guys who don't do well with women and who avoid or manipulate, respectively, to cover up for that--but she's no picnic herself. She's got issues that smiling and forgiving won't cover or hide. I did like her hair, though.
I wish there could have been more surprises to the film, but the style and melancholy really covered well for that. It was like watching a man revisit his memories of a dead loved one, made all the more painful for the fact that neither one had to lose the other. It was vaguely funereal, a literal cleansing of the past to open the future, which I think is one of the best ways to demonstrate the grieving process without degenerating into sap that I've seen yet.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-11 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 01:34 pm (UTC)Though, if you think about it, there's an element of wish fulfillment for the average guy in that--most guys marry women who are dependable and down-to-earth and get boring as the ennui of everyday life sets in. There's a "happily ever after" in having the guy (who you identify with) end up with the fun-lovin' crazy kid in the end. (Never mind that in a year they'll be throwing china at each other. It's a fantasy. You've got to work with it.)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 01:27 am (UTC)*hugs*
oh Dayle that is one of the bestest gifts ever...you doing a review on a movie i adore :)
I thought it was great, it actually gets ALOT better if you watch it more then once, it really starts to make alot more sense. The first time just made my brain hurt. But i loved the idea, and its sorta plausible in ways that I dont want to even consider...