“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “3:10 to Yuma”
Posted by: Matt in Movies, tags: MoviesWell, these two movies were so different that this really oughta be two posts, but I felt lazy.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was awesome. I really liked the surrealism of it. I liked the neat visuals they used to indicate the erasure of Joel’s memories, particularly the books turning all white (very subtle). I also was amazed at Jim Carrey’s performance. Normally I can’t stand him, and that was why I never got around to seeing this, to my loss. It was fun watching Carrey be the reserved straight-man to Kate Winslet’s impulsive and loopy Clementine. The side story was cool too because it turned out not to be such a side story. I also enjoy non-linear timelines, so that was a plus too. Four stars.
3:10 to Yuma was not quite as good, but good. I’ve been on a bit of a westerns kick lately and have been watching some of the more critically acclaimed ones, and this was one of them. I liked the character interaction between Wade (Russell Crowe) and Evans (Christian Bale). I also liked the moral ambiguity of the two characters, where neither of the main characters was totally evil or totally good — reminded me a bit of Unforgiven, which was a far superior western. Having said that, I liked that I couldn’t guess everything that was going to happen in advance, and I liked the acting. The ending, however, seemed a bit preposterous to me. I can think of a couple of better ways it could have turned out, but I won’t spoil it. Two and a half stars.
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