'Eternal Sunshine' delivers as a romance

Memory and memory problems have become a popular theme in movies of recent years, explored in scripts as diverse as "Memento" (long-term memory loss), "Fifty First Dates" (short-term memory loss) and "Paycheck" (surgical removal of memory).

MOVIE REVIEW

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

DIRECTOR: Michel Gondry

CAST: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst

RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes

RATING: R for language, some drug

and sexual content

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, East Valley 13, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Grand Cinemas, Guild 45th, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Monroe 12, Parkway Plaza 12, South Hill Mall, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B

The star-heavy but low-budget "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is another, and on paper it's very close to "Paycheck" because it also speculates what might happen if weird science could selectively delete certain troublesome memories from our psyches.

But since it comes from the pen of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation"), it bears no further relationship to that dismal sci-fi film and gradually emerges as another engagingly offbeat comedy-drama very much in the tradition of Kaufman's earlier work.

It stars a toned-down Jim Carrey as an angst-ridden, romantically disillusioned New York single who one wintry day skips work and takes a lonely train journey to the Hamptons, where he meets cute and falls for a kooky young woman (Kate Winslet).

They begin a live-in relationship but, as the months pass, it sours and she ultimately moves out. But when he decides to make up and confronts her, she doesn't know him. She's gone to a doctor and had all memory of him removed from her brain.

After he figures out what's happened, he's so miserable that he too decides to have the operation. This is the setup, and much of the rest of the labyrinthine movie takes place in his head, as his various memories play with each other and struggle to survive.

The film was directed by Michel Gondry, who also directed Kaufman's least-successful script, "Human Nature," and he clearly doesn't have a great gift for bringing this kind of bizarro material to life. (Kaufman's other director-partner, Spike Jonze, does it much better.)

And large chunks of the film just don't work at all, including a subplot involving Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo and several excruciatingly unfunny scenes in which Carrey surrealistically plays the baby and toddler versions of his character.

But, in its own strange way, the film delivers as a romance and as a relationship drama. Carrey and Winslet have a distinct chemistry, their coming-together scenes unfold with a tender credibility and their problems evolve with a poignant inevitability.

And, while it's flawed and often tedious, Kaufman's script is, on the whole, boldly imaginative and enjoyably challenging. Happily, it doesn't fall apart in the climax -- it's the only one of Kaufman's five produced scripts that has a satisfying third act.

It also has a point. It wonders: Is ignorance bliss? If science could give us the "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" (the line is from Alexander Pope), should we take it? Or is traumatic memory a precious commodity that makes us human, and capable of growth?

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.