[lazy_city]

ставлю отдельным постом, т.к. текст довольно большой.
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First up: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" by Charlie Kaufman, unspecified draft.

This script was hard for me to wrap my head around the first time I read it because there are so many textures and layers to this thing. I'm going to try to lay it out here without giving too much away, though.

The screenplay follows a Man, Joel Barish (set to be played by Jim Carrey), who discovers that his girlfriend, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), has had him permanently erased from her memories. Naturally, this comes as quite a shock to him because he didn't know their relationship was over. Unable to bear the thought of living the rest of his life as the sole owner of these memories, he decides to have her erased from his memories as well.

A majority of the scenes in the movie actually take place in his head. We literally see his entire relationship with Clementine laid out in a reverse order from the last time they spoke to the first time they met. As each scene (memory) plays out, they abruptly end and are erased from his mind.

I'd just like to say here that this script isn't very funny, nor is it intended to be. Ladies and gentlemen, Charlie Kaufman has written a beautifully somber, melancholy screenplay. One that, I suspect, will share a tone with a film like "The Royal Tennenbaums".

While the memories play out Joel soon realizes the importance memories play in our personal histories and decides that these memories must be preserved, so he begins to hide Clementine in memories that she doesn't belong. He takes her to a memory of himself sitting in a crib when he was two years old. He also takes her to a playground fight in grade school.

This film has an interesting subplot, which involves the inventor of this memory erasing procedure, his two assistants, and his secretary. We watch their lives and dramas develop and unfold while Joel's past is quickly disappearing. But I'm going to be vague because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It's a brilliantly conceived story about the past, the future, the present, sadness, regret, the price of love, and the virtues of moving on with ones life.

The characters are beautifully realized. Joel is a timid, melancholy figure who wants to be a free spirit. Clementine, on the other hand, is a free spirit. Her hair is dyed blue, and later orange, she says what she feels and feels what she believes. She reminds me of a younger incarnation of Maude from the classic film "Harold and Maude", with a slice of Juliet Hulme (also played by Kate Winslet in Peter Jackson's equally brilliant "Heavenly Creatures"), except, of course, without Juliet's delusional madness.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" has numerous possibilities. My only fears in regards to this movie is that itМs being directed by Michel Gondry, who helmed another Kaufman penned screenplay "Human Nature". Gondry showed a prowess in terms of visual style, but he failed to show any range as a filmmaker who can handle complex characters. "Human Nature" was okay at best and if Gondry would have tried to open up and show real depths with his characters the movie would have blown up in his face.

I pray that he shows artistic development and doesn't ruin this wonderfully conceived screenplay.

On an arbitrary scale of one to five, I'd give this script a FIVE.