Column #17 - From Script to Screen, Part 2: Spot-light

I read the screenplay for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" about nine months ago. I was immediately taken with it. This was without a doubt the best work Charlie Kaufman had done. Better than Being "John Malkovich", better than "Human Nature". Not better than "Adaptation", but that was a story about the writer as Greek hero and featured Robert McKee's famous lamentation against the use of voice-over as lazy writing in, guess what, a voice-over. I've taken McKee's famous (or it that infamous) screenwriting seminar, and the only thing he hates more than lazy storytelling is lazy storytelling with voiceover, and I bet that just chapped his ass. It also had the best performance of the year from Nicholas Cage; he was completely robbed come Oscar time. I actually believed that Charlie and Donald Kaufman (who lived fast, died young, and left an exactly identical-looking corpse) existed apart from each other, he was that good.

It was with anticipatory wistfulness that I went to see "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", henceforward referred to as ESOTSM, not to be confused with S&M which is a whole different kettle of fish...or so I'm told, I also understand that the internet has some information on it...I'm also told. Screw it, I'll just call it Eternal Sunshine. I was certain Eternal Sunshine would burn as bright as Icarus and crash to earth just as fast...Cause Icarus was this guy that dared to touch the sun, but the wax holding his wings together melted, and splat. Hey, it's Greek mythology. You know? That thing that inspired Troy? Oh, go read a book.

Eternal Sunshine was supposed to suck because whenever an original and interesting story is sent off to Hollywood it's homogenized, bastardized, and pasteurized until all that remains is a pulsating, bloating carcass of a once good idea. Instead much of the spirit and intent and most of the zing remained. Heck, they even improved on some of the parts. Joel (Jim Carrey) is less of a dick, Clementine (Kate Winslet) less of a bitch. The film remains focused on the two leads, spending less time getting to know and getting distracted by the supporting players. Know what? It works. This is a backwards love story, beginning at the end and ending at the beginning when things are new and real and possible. With memory erasure. Because all really powerful and effective love stories need obstacles. And an inability to remember who you love is a whopper. Think about it for a moment. Let's take the greatest of cinematic romances, no, not Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, but rather Rhett and Scarlet from Gone With The Wind. Allowing me to set the scene, a fight on the landing, at stake, true love itself. And...BEGIN.

Rhett: Frankly my dear, I don't...
Scarlet: What's wrong?
Rhett: I can't for the life of me remember your name.
Scarlet: That's funny. I can't remember yours. Does it rhyme with a part of the body? Rhett: Again, with the questions! What did I ever see in you?
Scarlet: Is something bothering you? Morris?
Rhett: You're too high-maintenance, annoying, and your nose is a little squigy.
Scarlet: You're too arrogant, foppish, and you still live with your mother.
Rhett: It's the 1800s. Everybody lives with their mother.
Scarlet: Still, it's very unbecoming...Where are you going? Home to mommy?
Rhett: Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. Anywhere but here!
He storms out and

END SCENE. Captivating isn't it. Why they didn't use memory erasure sixty years ago is beyond...Wait, was I talking about...What's your name again...? Taurus?

To my most pleasant of surprises, Eternal Sunshine is the finest movie so far this year, engaging me on emotional and intellectual levels that few films do, the subtle brilliance of Bubba Ho-tep excluded. Eternal Sunshine dares to challenge the viewer, forcing you to follow the story, not with the slavish devotion of a Quentin Tarantino film, but rather two of the most powerful and original characters of the year. The secret: Their ordinariness. Joel and Clementine love and hate with equal aplomb, each has baggage that needs it's own set of luggage, but mostly they struggle. With themselves, with each other, with life. And they fail. With themselves, with each other, at life. Like we all do.

The movie varied substantially from the script. The script has a preamble and epilogue centering on Mary the receptionist (Kirsten Dunst). This set-up and pay-off is more in keeping with the script's laconic tone. Mary has been trying to publish her manuscript, a ridiculous tale of ill-crossed lovers who unbeknownst to even themselves have been erasing and re-erasing the other one for decades. It's a kind of true love meets the irony of death story. No one believes it, it's just too darn fantastic. The script ends with Mary back at her office, lamenting her depressingly depressing existence when who but Clementine shows up, an old woman by now, seeking to erase Joel once more. It's so sad it's funny. Or is that so funny it's sad. It's a story ultimately about human failure, an unusually humane science fiction story centered around a strong and realistic premise and it's most mundane of applications.

Good written science fiction is ambitious and interesting and optimistic. Like The Foundation Series. Great film science fiction is dark and depressing and dystopic. First and last, Blade Runner. Still the best sci-fi film ever made. Eternal Sunshine the script is dark and dystopic. Joel and Clementine aren't able to learn from their mistakes because they keep getting erased. Accordingly, they're sentenced by some higher and much more ironic power to keep repeating that same relationship, drawn together by kismet. Eternal Sunshine the movie ends on a more up-note, but it's not the wrong way to end this story. Movie Joel and Movie Clementine have their whole romantic lives ahead of themselves, safe in the knowledge that all their dirty laundry has been aired (oh, if they only knew). The film ends with the possibility that maybe this time, Joel and Clementine will get it right, just maybe. It's a good ending.
Jess Nakaska is an aspiring screenwriter always on the lookout for the next great script idea. He'll let you know if he finds it. Feel free to contact him at jessnakaska@hotmail.com.