im Carrey plays Joel Barish, Kate Winslet plays Clementine Kruczynski as a couple once madly in love but whose affair goes stale. And when they meet by chance, she doesn’t just blank him, she genuinely doesn’t know him. Then Joel finds out the truth. Using a new and highly experimental technology, she is having her memories of him erased from her brain. In revenge, he’s determined to undergo the same process but as dodgy scientist Dr Howard Mierzqwiak (Tom Wilkinson) begins the procedure, Joel changes his mind. Can he hang on enough memories to win Clementine back?
Michel Gondry’s film is a fascinating melange of romance, fantasy and illusion, co-scripted with Charlie Kaufman ( Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) but has less of a linear approach than these two films. Wilkinson, one of Britain’s most underrated actors is Frankenstein-like as the doctor whose technology works – well, sort of – while Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood both play against type as his worryingly inept assistants. There is a romance and humour but Kaufman does ask a fascinating and very moral question – should painful parts of our lives be expunged when often they are the very experiences that have formed us?
cast
Jim Carrey as Joel Barish
Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski
Kirsten Dunst as Mary Svevo
Mark Ruffalo as Stan Fink
Elijah Wood as Patrick
Tom Wilkinson as Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
Jane Adams as Carrie Eakin
David Cross as Rob Eakin
Deirdre O’Connell as Hollis Mierzwiak
Thomas Jay Ryan as Frank
Ryan Whitney as Young Joel
Lola Daehler as Young Clementine
Debbon Ayer as Joel’s Mother
Gerry Robert Byrne as Train Conducter
Brian Price as Young Bully
Josh Flitter as Young Bully
Paul Litowsky as Young Bully
Amir Ali Said as Young Bully
Lauren Adler as Rollerblader
crew
Director: Michel Gondry
Writers: Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufmann
USA | 108 minutes | 2004
