Another Winner of a Movie
No, not the fifth of the five nominees. Not yet, anyway. Rented and watched the mind-bending tale from the bending mind of Charlie Kauffman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslett play lovers who break up and want to forget each other. They go separately to the mad scientist and his pals who have discovered a way to erase memories and act like it never happened. That's about all I want to say about the movie. It is a classic love story told in Kauffman's unique style.

Carrey would have been up for a best actor nomination in almost any other year. Winslett is nominated. The movie itself is Oscar caliber, but sadly there's only room for five nominess (and even more sadly, one winner.) It is a movie on the scale of Finding Neverland. (Still haven't seen Sideways so I won't comment whether it should have been in place of that movie.)

It is an intriguing concept, of course, this attempt to erase memories that we would just as soon leave behind. But underneath it is an exploration of hope and love and hurt and the roles they might even play in our lives. Perhaps we need all of our memories- good and bad. Perhaps we shouldn't even try to wipe the slate clean.

In the Big Book of AA, one of the promises is that "we will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it." The common wisdom is that this means that if we continue to regret what we have done, we have not made amends or truly changed. If we forget it we may be doomed to repeat what we shouldn't repeat. That quote came to mind a number of times during the movie. It is well done, and a pleasure to be part of.