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Gondry and wildcard screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) had collaborated once before on an awful little comedy called Human Nature that tried to be whimsical but turned out painfully contrived. Although Kaufman showed much growth in his work with Spike Jonze on Adaptation, pairing up with Gondry again and then throwing Jim Carrey into the mix sounded like potential trouble. Fortunately, the Eternal Sunshine script is his most mature and complex yet, and Gondry was able to rise to the challenge, bringing superb visualization skills and a real talent for working with actors. Together they’ve created a work that combines the trappings of romantic comedy with some mild science fiction elements to form a unique and visionary look at the way human beings fall into and out of love.

The basic premise borrows a page from Phillip K. Dick. On the heels of a devastating breakup with his girlfriend, sad sack Joel Barish discovers that his ex was so desperate to be rid of him that she visited a crackpot doctor who offered the chance to have Joel completely erased from her memory. Wounded and resentful, Joel signs up for the procedure himself. The idea is that by purging all reference to the relationship he will also undo all of the pain associated with its bitter end. Unfortunately, only after the procedure has begun does he realize that he’s also deleting all of the good memories, the happier times and the real love they shared, memories that enrich his life and that he’d really rather not be without. It is both the good and the bad experiences in life that define us as human beings, and to casually discard those things is to kill a part of who we are.

What follows is a fantastical trip through Joel’s brain as he hops from memory to memory, hoping to stay ahead of the erasure procedure and save those bits and pieces that are most precious to him. Meanwhile, the entire fabric of his life seems to be falling apart around him as the relentless mind-wipe sucks pieces of his world away bit by bit. Memories of all different times in his life smash into one another and Joel keeps retreating back further into the deepest recesses of his psyche, where the distant past is stored along with the most humiliating moments he’s tried to suppress.

Kaufman tells this story in a non-linear fashion that follows Joel’s emotional arc rather than a chronological timeline. Gondry brings some wonderful imagery that blends innovative digital effects with a Fellini-esque sense of magic and absurdity. The picture has layers of meaning and symbolism that will take many viewings to fully uncover. The result is a remarkably ambitious achievement that is funny, romantic, scary, confounding, tragic, uplifting and heartbreaking all at the same time. I never thought I’d find myself calling a Jim Carrey movie the best film of the year, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is exactly that.

Video: How does the disc look?

The movie’s cinematography has a deliberately off-kilter appearance to it, with contrasts that are pushed a little too much and a white balance the leans to being too blue. I remember it looking this way in the theater as well. Grain is sometimes used for artistic purposes and black level varies from scene to scene. Once you get used to the stylization, it has an interesting look and works well for the movie. The color palette is wonderfully vivid and looks terrific.

The movie is presented in its 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement (a “Full Screen” edition is available separately for those who don’t know any better). The picture appears sharp, but edge enhancement artifacts are problematic. The halos are usually of low amplitude and not too distracting in most shots, but are present throughout the movie. The image also feels overly “processed”, as though it were filtered to reduce compression artifacts and then electronically sharpened. This leads to only mediocre fine object detail and closing credit text that is almost blurry. All in all, this is a fairly decent transfer but falls short of what it might have been.

Audio: How does the disc sound?

The soundtrack is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options. The DTS has an edge in musicality and body to the sound, but both feel a bit muddy in the mid range with dialogue that is not as crisp as it ought to be. The movie has a creative sound mix that starts off subtly with a soundstage primarily limited to the front, and then slowly expands in envelopment until becoming very aggressive during the mind-wipe scenes. Bass action reaches surprisingly deep as well.

A French dub track is also provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The disc offers English and French subtitles, as well as English captions for the hearing impaired.

Supplements: What goodies are there?

I was hoping for more from the audio commentary by director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman. They are both friendly and talkative enough, but rarely delve into the substantive issues behind the movie’s premise. The track does not offer the kind of insights I was really expecting.

A Look Inside Eternal Sunshine is 10 minutes of pure Electronic Press Kit Fluff. Nothing of interest there. The 15-minute Conversation with Jim Carrey and Director Michel Gondry, however, is more interesting and funny even though it was also EPK- based.

Four deleted scenes lasting about 7 minutes total are presented in non-anamorphic letterbox with time code markings. They are all fairly good but not necessary, and the movie does not suffer without them.

The Polyphonic “Light & Day” music video features scenes from the movie with the actors’ mouths digitally morphed (in cartoonishly exaggerated fashion) to sing the lyrics to the song. It’s kind of funny, but also pretty creepy and weird. Finally, wrapping up the disc is a jokey Lacuna commercial not seen in the movie, which is mildly amusing.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

Parting thoughts