Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The concept of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind came from conversations between director Michel Gondry and co-writer Pierre Bismuth in 1998.[20] The pair had met and become friends in the early 1980s during Gondry's drumming career in the French pop group Oui Oui.[21] Bismuth had conceived of the idea of erasing certain people from people's minds in response to a friend complaining about her boyfriend; when he asked her if she would erase that boyfriend from her memory, she said yes.[21][22] Bismuth originally planned to conduct an art experiment involving sending cards to people saying someone they knew had erased the card's recipient from their memory.[23] When he mentioned this to Gondry, they developed it into a story based on the situations that would arise if it were scientifically possible.[21][23] Bismuth never carried out his experiment idea.[23]

Gondry approached writer Charlie Kaufman with this concept,[22][23] and they developed it into a short pitch.[24] While the writers did not believe the concept was marketable, a small bidding war began over the idea.[20][24][25] Steve Golin of Propaganda Films purchased it on June 12, 1998, for a low seven-figure sum.[5][26] Kaufman, who was responsible for writing the screenplay, did not begin immediately, instead opting to suspend writing while he was working on Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Human Nature, the last of which Gondry directed as his directorial debut.[20]

During this time, filmmaker Christopher Nolan released his film Memento (2000), which similarly deals with memory. Due to the similarities, Kaufman became worried and tried to pull out of the project, but Golin made him complete it.[5] During writing, the pitch's ownership changed several times resulting in Kaufman not having to deal with the studios until the end of the scriptwriting process.[20] The final script made the studios nervous.[20]

Kaufman did not want to make the film a thriller and wanted to downplay the science fiction aspects of memory erasure, focusing on the relationship.[20][23][25] He had an "enormous struggle" while writing the script, particularly encountering two problems: showing "the memories, Joel's reactions to the memories, and Joel interacting with Clementine outside of the memories in the memories," and the fact that characters could refer in later scenes to already erased memories.[20]

Kaufman resolved the first problem by making Joel lucid and able to comment on his memories and solved the second by making the memories degrade instead of immediately erasing, with complete erasure occurring at awakening.[20] Kaufman's original name for the screenplay was 18 words long, as he had wanted a title that "you couldn't possibly fit on a marquee."[27] He eventually decided on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a title originating from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope.[28]

Montauk station, where Joel and Clementine meet each other again after the erasing of their memories.

The shooting of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind began in mid-January 2003 after six weeks of preparation,[29][30][31] lasting for three months on a budget of $20 million mostly in and around New York City.[7][31] The production crew recreated some key scenes, such as Joel's Rockville Centre apartment and the 1950s-style kitchen, in a New Jersey former U.S. Navy base.[31] The shoot was difficult, sometimes shooting for 17 hours per day in harsh environments.[32]

The shoot was challenging for cinematographer Ellen Kuras, due to the difficulty of filming Gondry's vision for the film, which aimed to "blend location-shoot authenticity with unpredictable flashes of whimsy". According to this vision, Gondry wanted available light used exclusively for the shoot. Kuras disagreed and worked around this idea by lighting the room instead of the actors and by hiding light bulbs around the set to increase light levels.[31] Another issue the cinematographers encountered was that due to the frequent improvisation, the lack of marks and the few rehearsals completed, the cinematographers often did not know where the actors would be. Two handheld cameras filmed near 360-degree footage at all times, shooting 36,000 feet of film a day to deal with this.[19][31] Gondry called back to the work of French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard by filming using wheelchairs as well as using sled and chariot dollies instead of traditional dollies. When using wheelchairs, the shot was not consistently smooth; however, as Kuras liked the aesthetic of the low-angle, wobbly movement, the final film contains the footage.[31]

A beach in East Hampton, near where the film's beach scenes were filmed.

The film used minimal CGI, with many effects accomplished in-camera, through forced perspectives, hidden space, spotlighting, unsynchronized sound, split focus and continuity editing.[23] A notable example is the ocean washing away the house in Montauk; the production team accomplished this by building the corner of a house on the beach and allowing the tide to rise.[7] Executing this effect was difficult, as the special team hired to place the set in the water refused due to perceived dangers. In response, Gondry fired the team and had the production team, including the actors and producers, place the set in the water. In retaliation for Gondry's actions, the chief of the union reprimanded Gondry in front of the crew.[33]

Kaufman rewrote some of the script during production; thus, several discrepancies exist between the production script and the final film.[24] A fundamental difference is that in the production script, with the erasure of each memory, Clementine's behavior is increasingly robotic.[20] In the final film, Winslet plays Clementine straight, and degradation of settings and the intrusion of settings upon each other establish memory degradation visually. Another script component that did not make it into the final film was the appearance of Naomi, Joel's girlfriend, played by Ellen Pompeo. Against Kaufman's insistence on Naomi's inclusion, the production team cut her already filmed scenes.[20] Tracy Morgan was also cut from the film.[34]

Icelandic editor Valdís Óskarsdóttir edited the film, and she reportedly conflicted with Gondry during editing.[35] Kaufman was also very involved in the editing of the film. Editing was a long process as there was no requirement to rush it.[5][24] There were a few test screenings of the film, which elicited positive reactions.[24]

Produced on a budget of $20 million, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind opened on March 19, 2004, in the United States, earning $8,175,198 in its opening weekend in 1,353 theaters. The film placed seventh in the weekend's box office, and remained in theaters for 19 weeks, earning $34,400,301 in the United States and $39,636,414 in international markets for a total of $74,036,715 worldwide.[45] Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is, as of June 2018, Kaufman's most profitable and Gondry's second most profitable film.[46][47]

Winslet was widely praised for her performance, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, among others.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating 92% based on 256 reviews, with an average score of 8.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Propelled by Charlie Kaufman's smart, imaginative script and Michel Gondry's equally daring directorial touch, Eternal Sunshine is a twisty yet heartfelt look at relationships and heartache."[48] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 89 out of 100, based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[49] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[50]

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times in his initial 2004 review gave the film 3½ out of a possible 4.[51] He revisited the film in 2010 when he referred to Kaufman as "the most gifted screenwriter of the 2000s" and revised the rating to a full four stars, adding it to his "Great Movies" list.[52] A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film for being "cerebral, formally and conceptually complicated, dense with literary allusions and as unabashedly romantic as any movie you'll ever see".[53] Time Out summed up their review by saying, "the formidable Gondry/Kaufman/Carrey/Winslet axis works marvel after marvel in expressing the bewildering beauty and existential horror of being trapped inside one's own addled mind, and in allegorising the self-preserving amnesia of a broken but hopeful heart."[54]

Winslet and Carrey received widespread acclaim for their performances. Winslet's performance as Clementine received multiple award nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress,[55] a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role[56] and a Golden Globe Award nomination.[57] Premiere magazine placed her performance 81st in their 2008 list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.[58] Claudia Puig in a review for USA Today said of her performance "Winslet is wonderful as a free spirit whose hair color changes along with her moods. She hasn't had such a meaty role in a while, and she plays it just right".[59]

Ann Hornaday in a review for The Washington Post said "Even when forced to wear costumes and wigs that make her look like Pippi Longstocking after an acid-fueled trip to the thrift market, Winslet maintains a reassuring equilibrium. It takes an actor of her steadiness to play someone this unhinged."[60]

Carrey's performance as Joel also received acclaim and multiple award nominations, including a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role[56] and a Golden Globe Award nomination.[57] Many reviewers noted his casting against type. Jason Killingsworth in a review for Paste magazine said of his performance "Carrey nails the part, winning audience sympathy from the opening moments of the film".[61]

Moira MacDonald in a review for The Seattle Times stated "[Jim Carrey is] not bad at all — in fact, it's the most honest, vulnerable work he's ever done",[62] while David Edelstein of Slate said "It's rarely a compliment when I refer to an actor as "straitjacketed", but the straitjacketing of Jim Carrey is fiercely poignant. You see all that manic comic energy imprisoned in this ordinary man, with the anarchism peeking out and trying to find a way to express itself."[63] The supporting cast also received acclaim, with several reviews, such as Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post and Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail singling out Ruffalo's performance for praise.[60][64]

Critics praised Kaufman and his ambition, and he won numerous awards for his efforts, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.[55][65] In Slate, David Edelstein claimed Kaufman had "move[d] the boundary posts of romantic comedy,"[63] and Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times called Kaufman "one of the few creative screenwriters working today."[62] Kaufman's writing also was the recipient of some criticism, with some, including John Powers of the LA Weekly, claiming it lacked passion[66] and Andrew Sarris of Observer criticizing the film's "nonexistent character development."[67]

Gondry, like Kaufman, also received large amounts of praise, with The Washington Post acclaiming "the results [of Gondry using primarily live-action effects], in their intricate detail and execution," as "nothing short of brilliant."[60] The Seattle Times in their review stated "Gondry ... makes it all a melancholy fun house, with camera work and visual tricks that rival the screenplay in invention."[62] Cinematographer Ellen Kuras received praise for her work on the film, such as in a Salon magazine, where, in an overall negative review of the film, reviewer Stephanie Zacharek praised Kuras for her giving "the movie a look of dreamy urgency that's perfect for the story."[68]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released on VHS and DVD by Universal Studios on September 28, 2004,[75][76] with the two-disc Collector's Edition being released on January 4, 2005.[77] It was later released on HD DVD on April 24, 2007,[78] and on Blu-ray on January 25, 2011.[79][80] On July 26, 2022, Kino Lorber Studio Classics released Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray.[81] This release included a new color grading supervised by cinematographer Ellen Kuras.[82]

American singer-songwriter Halsey sampled dialogue from the film for her song "Ashley", the opening track on her 2020 album, Manic.[83]

American rapper and record producer Jay Electronica sampled five different tracks of Jon Brion's film score for his 2007 debut mixtape Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge).[84]

American singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko said the film inspired the songs "Eternal Sunshine" and "Spotless Mind" on her 2014 debut album, Souled Out.[85]

South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter B.I said that the film inspired his song "Tangerine", the fourth track on his 2022 release Love or Loved Part.1.[86]

American singer song writer Kelly Clarkson referenced the movie by name in her 2023 song Mine on her album Chemistry.

Kan Gao, founder of Freebird Games, said his video game To the Moon, which is about two doctors traversing through the memory of an old man to fulfill his last wish, was inspired by the film.[87]