Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind..

I went to see this movie recently. "Best movie I have seen this year" one of my best friends said. "Better than American Beauty even". And if this didn't raise the bar high enough for this movie he added "If you don't like it, then it could jeopardise our friendship".

Well I tell you, that was it. I had to like this movie. So I sat in the cinema.. ready to go and what unfolded was.. different.

Now don't get me wrong. I like different more than the next person but that was not the defining character of this movie. I just didn't get it. I got the concept but I just didn't get "IT". That indefinable something that makes a movie memorable. Lost in Translation. That is different but has that something magical that this movie lacked. Completely.

Carrey gives a great understated performance but I guess Jim Carrey's character was not really interesting until 10 minutes toward the end. Kate Winslet was also good but her Clementine was unlovable.. until 10 minutes before the end. By that time it was too late. I hadn't really warmed to them. So, I didn't have the epiphany promised when watching the movie. I didn't have incredible moments of clarity afterwards.

I felt let down because I really did want to like it!! But there really isn't one moment or one line that I would cherish..

Except for the scene in the kitchen when Joel (Carrey) is talking with his friends Rob and Carrie, a married couple, about his heartache over the breakup with Clementine (Winslet). In the background you hear incessant hammering interrupted by a loud "Fuck!". Carrie turns and hisses "Will you give it a rest"? And Rob says, eyes rolling "Carrie, I am making a birdhouse!"

Funny.. But not the classic I had hoped for.

So now it comes.. My top 5 for the year...

1.)Lost in Translation
2.)Bourne Supremacy
3.)Igby goes down (I saw it this year)
4.)Cold Mountain
5.)Kill Bill II