Much of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind takes place in the consciousness of Jim Carrey’s Joel Barish, who becomes increasingly unstable. Barish’s mind is also the playground of the highly visual Gondry. A messy yang to Wes Anderson’s manicured yin, Gondry’s visuals are similarly entrenched in a handcrafted aesthetic.
Combining Gondry’s organic tendencies with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s trippy, mind-bending sensibilities was probably a challenge. But the results speak for themselves. Instead of the breathtaking spectacle of a movie like Inception, there’s a quirky, unsettling quality to the way oddities sneak up on Barish, pulling the rug out from under him and the audience.
