Ten Past Midnight

I was thinking about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind today. Just about how great a film it is, and how wonderfully it projects the feeling of being in a relationship, particularly a new relationship. I thought it was funny how Katherine had connected with it in the same way, but that she'd seen the outcome as more negative, in which she believed the same thing would just happen over and over again to the couple, but where I had actually seen it as more hopeful, with just a hint of a poetic sadness... It's a great new outlook on the ending, though. I had never actually seen it that way before. But I thought about the movie again today, and how great it was, and I watched the trailer again today, and I can't wait when it comes out on DVD later this month. One of my favorite parts is when, in a last-ditch effort to save her in his memory, he retreats to his childhood memories, to place her in them. There's no one certain thing about this scene that gets me, but I guess it's just the general idea of it that touches me. I really hope it gets a screenplay nomination. It at least deserves that. It would be great if it got nominated for other things too, but screenplay would be wonderful -- just the fact of how original the idea is and how wonderfully it pulls it off, it's worthy of it just for that. I'd love Garden State to get a nomination also. If it gets anything it would be for screenplay. It's sort of a long shot, but it might. Both of the movies made a profit, and were both critically acclaimed somewhat, with Eternal getting almost across-the-board praise. Just hopefully it gets remembered come Oscar time. On a final note, one of my favorite parts in Eternal Sunshine is the entire opening sequence, 20 minutes, before the credits even kick in, where he meets her and their relationship starts. Then, when it cuts forward in time and they've just broken up, he's driving in his car at night, crying, listening to sad music, with no sort of effort whatsoever to light the inside of the car in a "professional" way, and the credits then start, 20 mins into the movie. It's a hard thing to explain, but the pacing and feeling that you get as a result of this pacing is amazing.