April 22, 2004 - 6:49 PM

Spotlight on Eternal Sunshine

When a movie can cause me to alternate between a blissful grin and a wistful crumbling, when it knots up my mind in a Rubick's Cube-logical tangle, when it drives me to down several belts of scotch to help me stew in the afterglow, that's when I know the movie fuckin' rocks.

And so it was a few weeks ago when I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with my friend Mike. Nick and Matt had talked up the movie very favorably, causing my already piqued interest to flare up into a salivating lust. No, not really, I'm hyperbolizing. But I was drooling at the prospect of seeing Kate Winslet (quite the tasty crumpet, isn't she?). Mmmmm. Oh, um...yes...uh...I was intrigued by the previews too.

The movie surpassed my expectations. Big time. [LITE SPOILER]I fell in love even more with Kate Winslet and felt my heart alternately leap and fall as the romance unravelled. Like with Lost in Translation, there was the same feeling of helplessness in watching a relationship that you know is doomed to fail in the end. Then there was the tempered hopefulness like with Dark City, where the two lovers find each other again, but it's bittersweet because they've lost the past that they shared, and you don't know if they'll be able to make it work this time through.[/LITE SPOILER]

The other movie that was pulled to mind afterwards was Memento, for the obvious similar narrative structure devices employed by both films, and the mind-bending that I eagerly undertook to puzzle the everything together. Incidentally, all three of those films are in my DVD collection and have garnered multiple viewings, and I'm sure Eternal Sunshine will join their ranks in a few months.

Question: Why did Kirsten Dunst get top billing along with Carrey and Winslet? For the opening credits, before they flash the title of the movie, you'd expect Jim Carrey to flicker up there followed by Kate Winslet, right? And then the title, then the rest of the cast. But somehow, Dunst's name snuck into the top-billing area, snuggled between "Winslet" and "Eternal" like some child with the practiced "who, little ol' me?!" of feigned surprise that's ingrained in the preciously precocious. God, I hate kids like that. Get back in line, Ms. Dunst, where you belong, behind Mr. Wilkerson and Mr. Ruffalo. Your act isn't working on me, missy. And put on a frickin' bra while you're at it.

************

I've just watched yet ANOTHER tv preview for the new Jennifer Garner movie, Big (With Estrogen). I mean, 13 Going on 30. Actually, I think the movie looks very cute and pretty funny (who knew Ms. Garner could possibly be so adept at comedy?). But, I have a beef. What is the deal with movies that need to have a group, line-dance, show-stopping (literally) production number? I mean, other than in a musical such as West Side Story or Guys and Dolls or Breakin' 2. We're talking about the teen comedies of the past 10 years (She's All That, Get Over It [hey, another Kirsten Dunst movie...sheesh, looking at her IMDB profile, she doesn't seem to turn a project down, does she?], The Princess Diaries) or the more adult comedies such as Head of State or The Guru. If the previews were lying and there is no such dancing in these movies, feel free to correct me. But you know what I'm talking about, right?

For no real reason and with no effect on the plot, a group of people at a party will join in and all do the proper dance steps to an updated version of the Electric Slide (which itself is just Country Line dancing set to pop music). What sets them off? One of the tertiary co-stars gets up and starts performing a song at the big dance, and suddenly, the entire auditorium has been trained and choreographed by Debbie Allen; or the main character, in order to liven things up and bring unity between disparate groups, will ask for a certain song to be played, and then will grab a friend or two to start lumbering through a dance pattern that, holy cow, everyone else will miraculously know. It's usually at this point that I start screaming at the screen or the tv, and it's here where my hatred for the actors involved is born.

To me, the spontaneous outbreak of lock(dance)step conformity is not cool or funny or entertaining. It's just sad. I will suspend my disbelief for such things in musicals because, well, hell, they're singing their inner thoughts out loud and NO ONE IS LOOKING AT THEM FUNNY, so why can't they dance their emotions too? That's part and parcel to that type of movie. I mean, c'mon, it's CALLED a Musical for chrissake. But in a movie that has no aspirations to being called a musical, a fancy-schmancy dance number sticks out like a sore thumb with a puss-filled callous from playing video games for too long. It interrupts the flow of the story and smacks of adult-filmmakers desperately trying to be hip and cool. Note to those guys: yeah, you're cool...if you're living in 1955 you dingbats! See that game over there with the cards that say Professor Plum and Miss Scarlett? It's called Clue. You should look into buying it. In fact, buy several.

Now Listening To : Liz Phair- Whipsmart
Random Thought : I swear, this baseball shit is like a drug. How did I survive 5 months without it?

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