Charlie Kaufman: Ranking All 8 Films Worst To Best

Where a Kaufman critic could say that he gets bogged down in depressing themes and eccentric storytelling, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind manages to reduce those qualities just enough to make the film accessible for all. Accessibility isn't a dirty word here, it simply means that Eternal Sunshine will be able to speak to a wide variety of people and that is to be credited.

After finding out that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has erased him from her memory, Joel (Jim Carrey) opts to have the same procedure done to him. Eternal Sunshine is a beautiful piece of cinema that explores the highs and lows of a now failing relationship that was once so promising.

As soon as the procedure begins, Joel instantly regrets his decision and does anything he can to fight it and preserve Clementine in his mind as his memories fade in front of him.

Both Carrey and Winslet are fantastic as the inverse of their normal typecast personas (Winslet plays the exuberant jokester, whereas Carrey is the dour and serious one) and they have excellent chemistry together. It's heart-breaking to watch the memories being erased and a lot of that is due to their performances.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind earned Kaufman (and his co-writers) a very well deserved Oscar for writing this screenplay and you can see why. The film is emotional, clever and has a sense of honesty to it that coveys the heartache of loss in a meaningful way.