The Cattery

The Cattery

Not Eternal Sunshine

3 June 2004
Filed under Film and Television, Text

In the build-up to my Big Trip, I've been working much and playing little. Hence lack of entries. But last weekend I managed to squeeze in a couple of movies: The Day After Tomorrow and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I haven't exactly been resisting seeing the latter – people's reports have been too promising for that – but Jim Carrey has never been high on my list of priorities, and the one time I tried to see it, there was a queue around the block, so I saw Elephant instead. That said, disaster flicks are positively LOW on my list of priorities, so how I ended up at The Day After Tomorrow on opening weekend escapes me. Must be something to do with my pop-culture junkie girlfriend.

Anyway.

The Day After Tomorrow was awesome. I've barely been able to find a positive review of it; in fact, the general level of scathingness has been very high. It was, it's true, seriously flawed. It's hard to credit a plot in which a scientist manages to convince the President that everyone north of Wilmington is going to die, die, die in the coldest of cold snaps –  no time to evacuate – then promptly wraps himself up in a big parka and WALKS TO NEW YORK, flanked by his moronic friends. But only the stupid and the ridiculously optimistic would expect anything more from such a film*. The Day After Tomorrow was there to appeal to base fears using expensive special effects, and it did a more than passable job: I shivered when it snowed; I was warmed by the life-saving sun. That it never pretended to be something it wasn't was a huge relief. Three cheers.

I was less than excited by Eternal Sunshine. Jim Carrey wasn't really the problem, although I personally wouldn't have cast him in that role if he were the last actor on earth. Kate Winslet was lovely, and unlike Jim Carrey, wasn't screaming "LOOK! I'M EXPANDING MY RANGE!", even though she was. Mark Ruffalo was the perfect sexy geek. I flat-out loved Being John Malkovich, and enjoyed Adaptation with reservations. Unfortunately, Eternal Sunshine had little of the humour of the last two Kaufman films, and all of the pretension. In the same way that a disaster film without special effects is a waste of time, a film making such a simple point about relationships must have some kind of emotional resonance – and this one didn't. I was impressed by the imagination in it, and it looked fantastic, but that was about it. I wasn't enlightened and I wasn't moved.

To make this comparative review truly comparative, it's been necessary to find some common ground between these two very different films, and after some deep thought, I've discovered it: both films make good use of former hobbits. Ian Holm is still really short in TDAT, and Elijah Wood in ESOTSM is cute and weird.

*I remember being similarly optimistic / stupid while watching You've Got Mail: I really, really didn't think they'd make gorgeous independent bookseller Meg end up with capitalist pig Tom, but narrative clichés won out in the end, as they always do.

Views from the Floor

Mel says:

I think we can begin to pinpoint a "Lord of the Rings Recycling Programme" in which former hobbits are still short and cute, and former elven archers send arrows slicing through Achilles heels. I'm waiting for Cate Blanchett to use a scary drag queen voice in some future movie.

Tom says:

While you're at it, may I whole-heartedly suggest avoiding Raising Helen, starring the undeniably gorgeous Kate Hudson. Utterly devoid of all the things a romantic comedy should possess. Didn't expect much. Got even less.

Huw says:

I also dislike Jim Carrey, but he was good. I was moved, but then, I saw it by myself, and it's very easy to be affected when you can't laugh to the person next to you. I don't think James Gandolfini would have worked quite as well, no matter how much we like him (though Steve Buscemi would have been fun).

As for Raising Helen; any film that has a preview telling us that the hero will have to "choose between the life that she loves, and the loves of her life" is destined for greatness.

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