Encumbrance of things past
What's 'Sunshine' without a few clouds?
By Todd Leopold
CNN
 |  Jim Carrey in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." |
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| | FACT BOX |  "Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon EST Thursday. |
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(CNN) -- In "Requiem for a Nun," William Faulkner made the famous observation, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
To which you can add George Santayana's comment, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
And yet we keep trying to escape anyway -- even if we're not sure what we're escaping. Is it a memory of failure? The sting of comparing the alleged freedom of our youth with the cold routine of today's daily grind? The gigantic thrill of falling in love versus the small joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship?
A complicated thing, this pondering the past.
Which is why so many modern Hollywood movies do a sloppy job of dealing with it. The nature of a popular film is to keep things simple. A love story may throw in a past as an obstacle -- the hero who can't commit, the heroine who's never known true love -- but things are usually neatly tied up with a happy bow at the end. A thriller often offers a protagonist with a secret past, but once that secret is dealt with, it's back-slaps and "everything's OK now."
Even a movie like "The Butterfly Effect," which is all about the past, offers its message with a sledgehammer -- "Don't fool with history!" -- with little acknowledgement of gray areas.
Into this misty history strides screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, never afraid of gray areas or big questions. In "Being John Malkovich" he took on issues of existence, control, fame and puppeteering. In "Adaptation" he wondered about the creative process and personal evolution.
Now, with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," he tries love and memory on for size. If you could erase the memories of a bad relationship, would you? Talk about a descent into the maelstrom.
Eye on Entertainment puts his head on straight.
Eye-opener
You've got downbeat Jim Carrey, who has an up-and-down relationship with Kate Winslet. You've got manic Kate Winslet, who is tired of her relationship with Carrey. She goes to a strange clinician named Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) to have her memories removed. Eventually, so does he.
In the usual Hollywood product, you'd cue the wacky pratfalls and amnesia jokes and be done with it. But Kaufman and director Michel Gondry -- he of arresting music videos, such as Bjork's "Human Behavior" -- don't make product; they want you to think.
So, ponder this: Are bad memories completely invaluable? Do we want the healing but not the scar? Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?
(Sorry, that's Tennyson.)
Some critics have accused "Eternal Sunshine" of being too clever for its own good -- a common criticism of Kaufman-written movies -- but most have given it positive reviews. Certainly, given the intelligence level of most films at the multiplex, the fact that "Sunshine" is allowed to appear at all is a step in the right direction.
Besides, it's funny.
We've always struggled with the past; sometimes the message is "Always remember," and other times it's "Better to forget." "Eternal Sunshine" is a romantic comedy, but there's something much more expansive in its soul. That's worth learning by heart.
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which also stars Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst, opens Friday.
On screen
So you have thoughtful movies such as "Eternal Sunshine." Then you have "Taking Lives," which stars Angelina Jolie as a detective trailing a serial killer -- or, as more than one reviewer has mentioned, "doing an Ashley Judd movie." The film also stars Ethan Hawke and Kiefer Sutherland. Opens Friday.For those who wonder if anyone can surpass Tom Savini's wonderfully ghastly makeup work in the original "Dawn of the Dead," there's a remake, complete with zombies, exploding heads, and a shopping mall. With Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames. Opens Friday.On the tube
He's been a co-owner of a small air service (on "Wings") and a "Producer" (on Broadway) -- and now Steven Weber is "The D.A." The new series premieres at 10 p.m. Friday on ABC.HBO has dealt with gangsters ("The Sopranos"), funeral homes ("Six Feet Under") and carnivals ("Carnivale"). The network's latest foray into twisting genres is "Deadwood," a Western from "NYPD Blue" producer David Milch. 10 p.m. Sunday, HBO (a division of Time Warner, as is CNN).Sound waves
"Fly or Die" (Virgin), the new album by N.E.R.D. (including the clever Neptunes production team of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), releases Tuesday.Usher's new album, "Confessions" (La Face), comes out Tuesday.As a sequel to the boxed set "Love-God-Murder," Johnny Cash put together a group of songs for "Life" (Sony/Legacy). Four days after he mailed the final track listing to the label, he was dead. (Read Cash's obituary.) The album comes out Tuesday.Rhino Records (which is still a division of Time Warner, I think) re-releases three classic Fleetwood Mac albums -- "Fleetwood Mac," "Rumours" and "Tusk" -- on Tuesday. All come with many demos and bonus tracks, particularly "Tusk," which is considered the closest Lindsey Buckingham came to emulating his hero, Brian Wilson. Paging readers
If following Donald Trump on "The Apprentice" or in the New York tabloids isn't enough, you can pick up his new book, "Trump: How to Get Rich" (Random House). One wonders if he'll mention that it helps to have a wealthy real-estate developer father to get you started. Comes out Tuesday.Joe R. Lansdale's newest book, "Sunset and Sawdust" (Knopf), releases Tuesday.
