Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) movie poster

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

"You can erase someone from your mind. Getting them out of your heart is another story."
ThumbScore
👍 93%Google users liked it ⓘ
Critics Score
🎬 91%
Science FictionDramaRomance

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Where to Watch

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Director
Runtime
1h 48m
Rated
R
Country
United States of America
Language
English
TMDB Rating
8.1/10 (16,114 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes
93%
Metacritic
89

Cast

Jim Carrey as Joel Barish · 74% avg
Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski · 72% avg
Kirsten Dunst as Mary · 72% avg
Mark Ruffalo as Stan · 75% avg
Elijah Wood as Patrick · 70% avg
Tom Wilkinson as Dr. Mierzwiak · 70% avg
Jane Adams as Carrie · 74% avg
David Cross as Rob · 74% avg

Is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind good?

Yes. 93% of real audiences liked it, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 91%.

Where it ranks on ThumbScore

Rank in its genre
#6 / 1040 · Science Fiction
Rank in its year
#3 / 175 · 2004
Rank among its director's films
#1 / 5 · Michel Gondry

By audience score, among films with 500 or more votes.

Overview

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake. Wikipedia ↗

About the Film

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American science fiction romantic drama film directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman. Jim Carrey stars as Joel Barish, a shy, introverted man who discovers that his impulsive ex-girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski, played by Kate Winslet, has undergone a medical procedure to erase all memories of their relationship from her brain. Devastated, Joel impulsively decides to undergo the same procedure, but as the memories are being deleted in reverse chronological order, he realizes he doesn't want to forget Clementine and begins fighting the erasure from within his own deteriorating consciousness.

Charlie Kaufman's screenplay was a work of extraordinary imaginative ambition, using the science fiction premise of memory erasure to explore the nature of love, loss, and identity with philosophical depth rarely attempted in mainstream cinema. Michel Gondry's visual approach to Joel's collapsing memories — rooms that crumble and disappear, faces that blur and vanish, childhood memories that bleed into adult experiences — was achieved largely through practical in-camera effects rather than CGI, giving the surreal sequences a tactile, handmade quality. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet both delivered career-best performances that revealed dimensions neither actor had previously shown — Carrey's restraint and vulnerability were revelatory, while Winslet's manic energy and emotional volatility created one of cinema's most authentic romantic heroines.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned $72 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. Eternal Sunshine has only grown in stature since its release, consistently appearing on critics' lists of the greatest films of the 21st century and widely regarded as the finest work in both Kaufman's and Gondry's careers.

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What Reddit Thinks

r/MovieDetails
⬆ 35,550💬 315 comments
In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), titles of the books aren’t visible in the bookstore scene because Joel can’t remember all of those details.
Top comment: "Actually the titles and dustjackets are on the books at the beginning of this scene. But as the..."
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