Film Is a Battleground #8: Wonderful, Difficult (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Collateral)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (on DVD)
COLLATERAL (in theaters)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Michel Gondry, 2004)
**** (Masterpiece)
Like most great popular art, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND manages simultaneously to seem shockingly new and completely familiar. The imaginative expression of universal truths triggers an intense, instinctual and very personal reaction which renders criticism difficult. Am I examining the film or its impact upon me? Certainly this conundrum presents itself in varying degrees when analyzing any film though there’s little trouble dealing with films at the opposite end of the experiential spectrum. A certain cathartic joy lifts the spirit when attacking a repulsive film. Though it did not make the time spent watching the film worthwhile, the time spent delineating all that I objected to in AMERICAN BEAUTY, for example, helped purge the ugliness from my system.
What to do though, with a film one loves? The impulse toward protection does not always preclude argument. It’s tempting but unsatisfying to dismiss discussion because of claims one party “doesn’t get” the film. I understand that most people don’t get De Palma but I have little trouble identifying and articulating what they’re missing, what I see.
However, there are certain films, few in my experience, that exist primarily as a delicate emotional relationship between viewer and image and for which my passion overwhelms my understanding. Were you to offer a reasoned, coherent analysis of the aesthetic limitations of CQ or BOTTLE ROCKET or BEFORE SUNSET I would, despite my passionate appreciation of those films, struggle to provide a coherent defense of their virtues. Those films connect with me so deeply that not to love them seems incomprehensible. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a similarly wonderful, difficult case.
I remember the joy I experienced watching BEING JOHN MALKOVICH transcend my expectations. I had hoped for little more than an especially watchable, if somewhat snarky, hipster comedy. Instead, I witnessed a metaphysical comedy unlike anything I’d previously seen.
Charlie Kaufman’s subsequent scripts revealed a writer unafraid of silly, absurd characters, situations, and incidents yet profoundly committed to considering the themes he broached (identity and morality in CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, civilization in HUMAN NATURE, identity, art, and commerce in ADAPTATION).
After MALKOVICH, I rated HUMAN NATURE, Kaufman’s previous collaboration with Michel Gondry, as his best script. HUMAN NATURE contemplated the nature vs. civilization issue in a traditional, screwball structure. The film, with its refusal to presume correct answers existed for the questions it posed, lacked pretension. That understated quality, combined with Michel Gondry’s technical restraint (when compared to his music videos), must be the root cause for the film’s lack of impact with audiences and critics.
Gondry shows no such restraint in ETERNAL SUNSHINE. He maintains the technical inventiveness of his videos over the length of a feature. The difference lies in his source material. Though his videos are jaw-dropping, involving, and hypnotic to look at, the only thing you really think about is how he conceived of and achieved the effects.
Kaufman’s script for ETERNAL SUNSHINE, concerned both intellectually and emotionally with the universal human experiences of love, pain, and memory, allows Gondry to pair emotional immediacy with his technical inventiveness. The how-did-he-do-that wonder registers momentarily, before being emotionally transformed by the subjective experience of memory.
It’s the emotional power of this film that elevates the script above Kaufman’s previous work. At some point all his previous scripts became more involving on an intellectual, meta-textual level. ETERNAL SUNSHINE doesn’t sacrifice intelligent self-awareness to push emotional buttons. For the first time Kaufman successfully integrates the emotional and intellectual elements for an entire film.
Besides marking the best work of a gifted writer and director, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND represents a simultaneous leap forward for both art and genre cinema. It owes ostensible debts to the strictures of both the science fiction and romantic comedy genres, but it’s a science fiction film like LA JETEE and ALPHAVILLE were science fiction films and it makes even the best recent romantic comedies with metaphysical concerns (GROUNDHOG DAY, BEFORE SUNRISE) seem relatively insignificant.
COLLATERAL (Michael Mann, 2004)
* (Has redeeming facet)
Michael Mann makes films about men (usually cops and criminals), the process of their work, and their relationship to their work: how process defines identity.
Tom Cruise plays characters that simply are something (spy, lawyer, pilot, bartender, pool player). His characters are not predisposed to contemplating the process of their behavior or their reasons for doing what they do.
COLLATERAL fails to reconcile the above dilemma.
The first film that Mann has directed without writing the screenplay, COLLATERAL contains individual scenes that connect with Mann’s oeuvre, but overall the film is minor stuff. Reminiscent of the Coen’s INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, the film seems less the work of a recognizably individual talent than an imitation thereof.
Despite being saddled with Cruise for most of the film, Jamie Foxx manages to give another fine performance. On the rare occasions when he gets a scene with another actor (the great Javier Bardem, or even the surprisingly good Jada Pinkett Smith) he briefly lights a spark within the film. Similarly, one wishes to see more of the cops played by Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg.
But the film instead circles back on Cruise who is unable to carry the weight of Mann’s exploration of masculinity. That’s not slur on Mr. Cruise’s manhood. Rather, he fails to be recognizably human, thus rendering his methodical, relentless hitman more ludicrously stilted than chilling.
COLLATERAL (in theaters)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Michel Gondry, 2004)
**** (Masterpiece)
Like most great popular art, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND manages simultaneously to seem shockingly new and completely familiar. The imaginative expression of universal truths triggers an intense, instinctual and very personal reaction which renders criticism difficult. Am I examining the film or its impact upon me? Certainly this conundrum presents itself in varying degrees when analyzing any film though there’s little trouble dealing with films at the opposite end of the experiential spectrum. A certain cathartic joy lifts the spirit when attacking a repulsive film. Though it did not make the time spent watching the film worthwhile, the time spent delineating all that I objected to in AMERICAN BEAUTY, for example, helped purge the ugliness from my system.
What to do though, with a film one loves? The impulse toward protection does not always preclude argument. It’s tempting but unsatisfying to dismiss discussion because of claims one party “doesn’t get” the film. I understand that most people don’t get De Palma but I have little trouble identifying and articulating what they’re missing, what I see.
However, there are certain films, few in my experience, that exist primarily as a delicate emotional relationship between viewer and image and for which my passion overwhelms my understanding. Were you to offer a reasoned, coherent analysis of the aesthetic limitations of CQ or BOTTLE ROCKET or BEFORE SUNSET I would, despite my passionate appreciation of those films, struggle to provide a coherent defense of their virtues. Those films connect with me so deeply that not to love them seems incomprehensible. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a similarly wonderful, difficult case.
I remember the joy I experienced watching BEING JOHN MALKOVICH transcend my expectations. I had hoped for little more than an especially watchable, if somewhat snarky, hipster comedy. Instead, I witnessed a metaphysical comedy unlike anything I’d previously seen.
Charlie Kaufman’s subsequent scripts revealed a writer unafraid of silly, absurd characters, situations, and incidents yet profoundly committed to considering the themes he broached (identity and morality in CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, civilization in HUMAN NATURE, identity, art, and commerce in ADAPTATION).
After MALKOVICH, I rated HUMAN NATURE, Kaufman’s previous collaboration with Michel Gondry, as his best script. HUMAN NATURE contemplated the nature vs. civilization issue in a traditional, screwball structure. The film, with its refusal to presume correct answers existed for the questions it posed, lacked pretension. That understated quality, combined with Michel Gondry’s technical restraint (when compared to his music videos), must be the root cause for the film’s lack of impact with audiences and critics.
Gondry shows no such restraint in ETERNAL SUNSHINE. He maintains the technical inventiveness of his videos over the length of a feature. The difference lies in his source material. Though his videos are jaw-dropping, involving, and hypnotic to look at, the only thing you really think about is how he conceived of and achieved the effects.
Kaufman’s script for ETERNAL SUNSHINE, concerned both intellectually and emotionally with the universal human experiences of love, pain, and memory, allows Gondry to pair emotional immediacy with his technical inventiveness. The how-did-he-do-that wonder registers momentarily, before being emotionally transformed by the subjective experience of memory.
It’s the emotional power of this film that elevates the script above Kaufman’s previous work. At some point all his previous scripts became more involving on an intellectual, meta-textual level. ETERNAL SUNSHINE doesn’t sacrifice intelligent self-awareness to push emotional buttons. For the first time Kaufman successfully integrates the emotional and intellectual elements for an entire film.
Besides marking the best work of a gifted writer and director, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND represents a simultaneous leap forward for both art and genre cinema. It owes ostensible debts to the strictures of both the science fiction and romantic comedy genres, but it’s a science fiction film like LA JETEE and ALPHAVILLE were science fiction films and it makes even the best recent romantic comedies with metaphysical concerns (GROUNDHOG DAY, BEFORE SUNRISE) seem relatively insignificant.
COLLATERAL (Michael Mann, 2004)
* (Has redeeming facet)
Michael Mann makes films about men (usually cops and criminals), the process of their work, and their relationship to their work: how process defines identity.
Tom Cruise plays characters that simply are something (spy, lawyer, pilot, bartender, pool player). His characters are not predisposed to contemplating the process of their behavior or their reasons for doing what they do.
COLLATERAL fails to reconcile the above dilemma.
The first film that Mann has directed without writing the screenplay, COLLATERAL contains individual scenes that connect with Mann’s oeuvre, but overall the film is minor stuff. Reminiscent of the Coen’s INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, the film seems less the work of a recognizably individual talent than an imitation thereof.
Despite being saddled with Cruise for most of the film, Jamie Foxx manages to give another fine performance. On the rare occasions when he gets a scene with another actor (the great Javier Bardem, or even the surprisingly good Jada Pinkett Smith) he briefly lights a spark within the film. Similarly, one wishes to see more of the cops played by Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg.
But the film instead circles back on Cruise who is unable to carry the weight of Mann’s exploration of masculinity. That’s not slur on Mr. Cruise’s manhood. Rather, he fails to be recognizably human, thus rendering his methodical, relentless hitman more ludicrously stilted than chilling.
Labels: charlie kaufman, collateral, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, michael mann, michel gondry
posted by Bret LaGree at 15:55
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