Customer Reviews
POPE ALEXANDER, ALEXANDER POPE - By: Michael JR Jose, 28 Apr 2006 
Some people are put off this film because they don't like Jim 'Manic' Carrey, but strangely, this is a reason to watch the film as he plays a shy boy in this one. Underacting is so much less exhausting than overacting! Kate Winslett plays the bit-above-average American extrovert, & plays it very well, so she reverses her normal refined English rose role too. The genius of the story is the play with the timeline, which twists & loops more than 'Timecop' & 'Pulp Fiction' together. Flashback is the technical term, but this barely begins to describe the new heights to which it is brought.
The story opens with the shy boy waking up, & on a whim, taking the day off work to go to the beach. He does not feel too good, but he does not know why yet. He meets a stranger, a forward girl who gives him the glad eye so often that he is embarrassed out of his skin. Of course they get it together, & then the complications set in. They seem made for each other, but in way so strange that it seems like they have a previous shared deja vu sort of attraction.
Then their memories play the strangest tricks, the story is partly seen thru his eyes, in First Person Point Of View way, but not entirely, as he often appears to be viewing his own memories & life. It is a life he chose to throw away, he tried to live it & failed & wanted to run away, & then, even as he threw it away, knowing that he is making a mistake, he tried to change his mind. The story is his inner turmoil made visible. Only film can do this! Even very interior books like 'Rebecca' or 'Jane Eyre' can only approximate the effect.
The science fiction aspect of the story is quite familiar, similar to ideas found in 'Total Recalll' & 'Blade Runner', but the whole story is so set in the Now that it has no feel at alll of futurism. The morallly dubious nature of the procedure he is so set on instinctively fighting is very cleverly handled. A significant film, & one worth watching more than once. Any film that can quote Nietszche & Alexander Pope inside one minute has to be worth a look.
Buy it or buy it - By: Thomas Edwards, 02 Jun 2005 If you enjoyed this film at the cinema, the DVD will not fail you. The commentary is interesting & informative, giving a real insight into how the film was created. The special features are limited compared to blockbusters such as Lord of the Rings.
I have a strong passion of hatred against most DVDs. Many distributors seem to think that we want to sit & watch some stupid graphics & half of the film just before we get to the button marked 'play'. Focus Features never do this. The DVD menu is a picture of the two main characters & a few buttons, one of which is marked 'play'. Please show your support for these intelligent people & buy this DVD.
The film itself is a masterpiece, easily the best complete film to be made in the last few years.
a mind-numbing spectacle - By: , 01 Mar 2005 
Clever, creative & original, this is a good break from your ordinary money-making pics. The crazy & impulsive Clementine (Kate Winslet) erases Joel (Jim Carey) from her memory, literallly. The exasperated Joel, who is head over heals for her, undergoes the same "erasing programme", only to change his mind mid-way but have no way back (or can't stop going back, depending on which way you look at it). At one moment, history is repeating itself, one second later, it is no longer history. The film just missed slipping into a world of confusion & insanity, but on the whole, great performances from the cast, a wicked plot & excellent entertainment.
A beautiful film - By: Beautiful Freak, 14 Feb 2005 At your peril should you be fooled by the slightly inexplicable advertising pitch of this film that presents it as a happy feel-good teeny 'comedy', nor should you be tempted to classify it according to the presence of Jim Carey & Kirsten Dunst. In truth, as you would expect of a film named from a quote by Alexander Pope, it is far more complex, more worthwhile, darker & more special than that.
The plot, in a nutshell: Joel (Carey) discovers that his eccentric, impulsive, blue-haired ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had alll memory of him erased by a company specialising in the procedure, & he decides to have it done too. There is a subplot involving Elijah Wood & Kirsten Dunst, but the focus of the film is certainly the messed-up tragicomic alternately perfect & disastrous relationship between Joel & Clementine. The majority of the film then takes place inside Joel's mind as he chases Clementine through his memories & watches them fade away.
The deepest parts of Joel's memory begin to collapse in chilling, sad & sometimes downright scary sequences, as books lose their writing, buildings tumble, places & people fade & disappear & faces lose their features. At the same time we catch a glimpse of the insecurities of both characters that originallly brought them together. Corny romanticism is thrown aside: this film is uncompromising, realistic & honest, & the relationship between the characters is both glowing with light & life & shadowed by their differences. The delightful idiosyncrasies of the objects Joel names as having an association with Clementine (a giant stuffed skeleton doll, people made of potatoes, journals, mugs, pictures, cards, snowglobes...) reveal the crazy truth that exists between people.
There is some humour, but it's neither slapstick nor simple & always touched by sadness: there is the charming familiarity of childhood humiliation & of speaking the words through to a silent film, & the pathetic humour behind the old woman in the waiting room preparing to have her memory erased with tears in her eyes, clutching a box containing a bone & a dog-bowl with her pet's name on it. Not a shiny happy film, then, but a dark, fractured & yet somehow uplifting account of love.
