(3/7/03)

Charlie Kaufman has been hailed by many, myself included, as an original and gifted screenwriter, not a common thing in Hollywood. His screenplays have received recognition as stunningly original and cerebrally challenging creations. His stories deal with perceptions of reality. His characters are fresh, strange, provocative, and extremely organic. First and foremost, I agree that Kaufman is one of the more original writers working today in the "Industry." He’s one of the best. But I can’t help but wonder if maybe we’re so hungry for anything original that we cut Kaufman a lot more slack than we would other screenwriters? Absurd a thought it might be, but I think the argument does hold water.

His movies are hailed by critics, and yet audiences stay home time and again. Now this may say more about audiences today than it does about Charlie Kaufman the screenwriter. When I first read Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich I had about the same response as most of my serious screenwriting friends, "Wow, this is beyond description. It’s so fresh and original."

Lately some critics are becoming less enamored with Kaufman’s stories. Leah Rozen of People described Adaptation as being "Almost too clever for its own good." Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com calls out Kaufman saying his script was "Cowardly." I’ve heard screenplays described as many things, but that’s a first.

One the positive side, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone went so far as to declare that "screenwriting this smart, inventive, passionate and rip-roaringly funny is a rare species." I’d like to know how often Mr. Travers bothers reading the actual screenplays to the movies he watches? Nonetheless, I’m sure he’s more qualified than I am to make such proclamations, especially when he has less than kind words to say about the screenplay (or screenwriter) of a movie.

Kaufman’s latest script is the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’ve got a copy of his May 20, 2002 (third draft) script. I don’t think it’s necessarily a brilliant script, or a particularly original one. It’s actually more science fiction, but the interesting thing about it is its insistence on not being a sci-fi movie. It deals with technology that does not yet exist: the ability to erase someone’s brain of the memories of someone or something they no longer wish to keep. The irony is that these moments, those bad experiences of our lives, are what shape us as people.

The main characters are Joel and Clementine (I really do love Kaufman’s choice for character’s names). "Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling…you were gone and lost forever…" Never mind. But that’s the point, "never mind." Kaufman has already stated that he thought of this really cool idea for a movie: about a guy who gets a card in the mail one day that tells him he’s been permanently erased from his girlfriend’s mind. This conceptual approach to his story is nothing new, Being John Malkovich was all concept, but with it he was creative enough and fortunate enough to occupy the story with some bizarrely interesting characters (a Kaufman trademark). But here he’s not as fortunate. Joel and Clementine are woefully unimaginative, and feel more familiar than any of his previous leading characters.

The strange and the bizarre are not enough to carry a character arc. I found this story to be almost painfully predictable and at one point it had bored me to the point of exhaustion. It was laborious to read this script.

Clementine is an alcoholic and a bimbo, and Joel is a self-absorbed loser who gets nervous around women. A little too familiar I think. There are some laughs, some moments, and a few interesting details. But for the most part, this off-center, off-beat, and quirky story will bore audiences. I can hear my screenwriting friends now as I write this. They’ll think I’ve lost my mind. I’d like to go see Dr. Mierzwiak (the doctor who Clementine sees to have Joel erased from her mind) and have this script wiped clean from my memory.

There I said it. I don’t think this script is anything to get excited about. One thing is for certain, it will be yet another Kaufman film that no one sees, or wants to go see. Only this time it might be a good thing.

When Joel discovers that his beloved Clementine has lost her mind he decides he’ll show her, and so he has the same procedure done to him. This logic failed to imprint itself on me, and that was the first stumbling block of this story, and not the last.

As his memories are being stripped from his mind, Joel has second thoughts, but he’s unable to communicate outside of his mind from the sedative they gave him before the procedure. But love does conquer all and perhaps though Joel and Clementine had their minds erased of their relationship, maybe they were soul mates, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll find each other again?

It’s a formulaic romantic comedy. The guy gets the girl in the end. Maybe that’s my biggest complaint. I don’t know. I could be completely wrong. With Jim Carrey starring and with a good marketing ploy this could be the sleeper hit of the year. "Who knows?" Didn’t somebody really smart once say that?