Being Da**** *** ******ff

[muckefuck]

As part of my ongoing ambition to be the absolute last person I know to see the most talked-about films of the last ten years, I NetFlixed Being John Malkovitch for tonight. A little disappointing. I don't think it was so much a problem of not living up to the hype, but of the impossibility of comparison to The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. As monshu can attest, I had such a powerful emotional reaction to that film that I couldn't even talk about it coherently afterwards, let alone pick it apart. But BJM struck me as less engrossing and more gimmicky, so I had too much mind power free to find flaws in it, especially in characterisation. Catherine Keener's character in particular was too opaque for me to accept wholeheartedly. None of this is fatal, since if the movie were that bad I wouldn't be so keyed up thinking about it an hour-and-a-half later.

(I'm not going to bore anyone with my reactions to other musty properties; if anyone's really interested, feel free to ask. I'd also be willing to post a list and talk about any of the films you wanted to hear more about.)

Today was more shopping to prepare for the trip. If you need a set of luggage, you could do far worse than to pick up a four-piece (well, including fanny pack) at Nordstrom Rack for $100. That's less than I paid for a single new bag at Filene's. Not 100% happy with it, but I felt compelled to leave with something, since the one I've had has been crying out for replacement for half a year now. (Okay, a whole year.) I'm hoping that the fact that it's snugger will force me to be more organised rather than dumping everything into it like a portable automobile on a strap.

I've got more bitching to do about my Chinese homework, but I've been putting off that entry because it means typing out a lot of quotes. At least I've found some help in my project to learn Simplified characters: A Mainland guy who had to teach himself Traditional is trying to reverse engineer his mnemonics for my use. Pretty cool considering the contentions discussion of Trad vs. Sim we had some years back.

Comments

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was a bit disappointed in Eternal Sunshine right after watching it. Judging by the trailers, I expected something completely different. I thought it was more like Groundhog Day, with the protagonist's mind being erased a couple of times during the course of the movie, but instead it was just one long semi-abstract visualization of the erasing process, and nothing really happened story-wise...

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Nothing happened? Holy cow, did we see completely different movies! I sobbed for a solid hour afterwards--something which has never happened to me before after any movie, play, novel, or other piece of art. What I couldn't explain to monshu at the time was that the thought of not only losing him but all my memories of him was one of the most horrible things I could conceive of. That whole sequence where Carrey's trying desperately to squirrel away rembrances of his loved one so they can't be taken from him was a tour de force. I'm very glad it turned out not to be something as gimmicky as Groundhog Day, which was very amusing but only had one or two scenes that came close to touching my heart.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

Oh, it takes a LOT for me to sympathize with movie characters, although I really like Jim Carrey.

To me, the movie was gimmicky on another level: It seemed like ninety minutes of music video, mainly concentrating on visual effects. I found some of them very nice and subtle (the disappearing book spines), while others simply annoyed me (the "baby" sequence). In any case I would have preferred a progressing storyline with twists and turns instead of this sort of "inner struggle".

I might appreciate it more now because my expectations are gone... Actually, I didn't really get it while watching. During the movie, I kept thinking, "this must be some very complex nonlinear story". I was constantly looking for clues, but then it turned out to be just "Oh, we're inside the main character's head while his memories are being erased and all the weird stuff that's happening is just a representation of that" and that was just a tad too mundane for me. I waited for my mind to be stimulated while the director obviously tried to evoke my emotions.

Of course, the mere idea of losing all the memories of your loved one is very intriguing and saddening, but I don't think I need to watch a movie just to realize that. ;-)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

But the movie didn't just present the idea, it illustrated it in heartbreaking detail. You could understand how the protagonist gets to the point of deciding to erase his memories and--more importantly--feel the horror as the full realisation sinks in of what he'd done to himself. Our memories make us what we are and destroying them is a form of self-annihilation. This is well-illustrated in the reaction of Dunst's character when she discovers she's also undergone the same treatment.

I liked the complexities because they developed reasonably from the basic idea rather than feeling like a lot of tacked-on twists to keep me from getting bored at the 45-minute mark. At the end of the day, Groundhog Day is just a standard rom-com with a supernatural twist. Eternal Sunshine is a meditation on memory and loss that works at a much deeper level--or, at least it did for me. It's not a thriller, it's a philosophical film. Trouble is, we've been conditioned as moviegoers to expect the former even when we're promised the former.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

I couldn't really understand why Jim Carrey's character decided to have his memories erased as well - it seemed pretty random to me, he had no reason other than "she did the same and she's with another guy now, so I'm unhappy and I want that to go away".

I haven't been promised a philosophical film. Have you seen the trailer?
First, there's the supernatural component, presented in a comedic fashion. Then, they show a lot of happy scenes, mixed with some of the weird stuff and happy music. So of course I expected a "rom-com with a supernatural twist".

The problem is the visualization. It's a beautiful movie alright. But from my p.o.v., the illustration didn't help bring the point across, it more so distracted from it and utterly confused me as a viewer. The "frame story" arrangement didn't help either. They shouldn't have done that if the movie wasn't supposed to be a mindfuck à la David Lynch.

Also, I didn't like Kate Winslet's hair at all, it's yucky. ;)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

he had no reason other than "she did the same and she's with another guy now, so I'm unhappy and I want that to go away".

At the risk of sounding utterly presumptuous, this is the reaction I'd expect from someone who's never been completely devestated by a breakup. People make incredibly bad choices in the depths of the situational depression brought on by being dumped. It makes perfect sense to me both that he makes the decision he does at the time and that he immediately regrets it when it becomes apparent what that really entails.

No, I never saw the trailer. My expectations were based completely upon reviews, so I had a good idea what I was getting from the start. If it's any consolation, monshu was so bored with the film, he gave up on it halfway through and went to bed. I guess the plot didn't speak to him either.

Yeah, I didn't think Winslet's character was All That, but it wasn't hard for me to accept what she represented to Carrey and substitute the reactions I've had in an identical situation.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

Maybe Groundhog Day wasn't the best example...
Have you seen Memento? I expected something similar to that.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Formally, Memento was more convoluted than Eternal Sunshine, but for that very reason I found it more gimmicky and less moving. It took me a while to figure it all out and I had fun doing it, but that was all.