I am back! With tons of exciting pictures which I’ll get around to sorting later later.
The movie trailer for Watchmen is fucking sick. Watch in High Def here. (Song: Smashing Pumpkins – The Beginning is the End is the Beginning)
Just downloaded the comic and it’s bloody nice as well.
I need more practice in writing.
How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d …
-Alexander Pope
Summary: Jim Carrey is Joel, an uninspired guy who “falls in love with every woman who shows [him] the least bit of attention”. He crosses paths with Clementine, played by Kate Winslet, a seemingly carefree girl. They had never met before, and have personalities which are poles apart – yet they begin to share an unexplainable attraction to each other. What they don’t know is that they were lovers in the past, but had each erased memories of the other at Lacuna, a clinic for patients wanting to forget the past. The subplot involves the doctor (Tom Wilkinson) of Lacuna, and his assistants Mary (Kirsten Dunst) and Patrick (Elijah Wood). Much of the movie is played out in Joel’s mind, where he tries desperately to prevent his fading memories with Clementine from forever disappearing.
I’m pretty sure I’ve done a post on this movie before in my previous blogs. But whatever, I have to write about something so I might as well write about this again. The first time I watched this movie was when it came out in theaters here during 2004 (sec 2?), if I recall correctly. It was rated NC-16, and back then it was a very exciting occasion for me, to sneak in to a movie which wasn’t for kids (so rebellious), at least according to guidelines stipulated by our wonderful MDA. My brother was giving heaps of praises and kept saying after the movie what a wonderful film it was.. but honestly back then I thought it was just ok.
The funny thing about Eternal Sunshine is that it was one of those films which you go.. ‘Wow.. okay what happened again?’ the first time you see it, then ‘Oooh I get it now’ the second time, and ‘Fuck this is brilliant!’ on the third try. At least that was the case for me. I just watched it for the fourth time and I trully believe it holds its own as one of the best, up there with Memento and Fight Club, for this genre no less. I think it was marketed as a romance flick, but really it’s nothing like the mindless crap which comes out every summer.
The film manages to be intelligent and psychological, yet cozy and fun at the same time. I think you can appreciate the movies in two ways. The first is to understand the underlying moral of the story behind the film – which is that feelings and emotions are not things which we can easily suppress and forget, and more importantly, they aren’t things that we should. The second way is to just view the film at face value, enjoy the cinematography, the acting, and the story. The latter’s what I did the first time I watched it, and the first, the subsequent times. Either way, it’s still a bloody good film.
The script isn’t the best, but it is certainly pulled off with great finesse by the perfect cast, each of which did a brilliant job in portraying their respective characters. I’m not exactly the greatest fan of Jim Carrey, with him portraying such classics as The Mask and Ace Ventura. Nonetheless, he plays a hopelessly deluded Joel with great fluidity, or rather, with taut rigidity, as the character requires. He did an exceptional job for The Truman Show, but this takes the cake. The female lead Kate Winslet also pulls in a strong act as Clementine, the easy going and unrestrained spirit. She also does her best job here since Titanic, yes even without the boobs.
After the recent flurry of shit movies I’ve watched (thanks to some of my besties ^^), how I wish there would be more of such wonderful films. The world would be a much better place.
