'm not going to wait for the year to end to let you know my choice for the best science-fiction or fantasy film of 2004. You may think I'm being a little premature, what with such movies as Blade: Trinity and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events still to hit theaters. But having just revisited my pick on DVD, I doubt that those two, or any of the last few stragglers of the year, will cause me to change my mind.
A quick look at what else Hollywood delivered to theaters in 2004 shows plenty of special-effects extravaganzas (Van Helsing, The Day After Tomorrow, The Chronicles of Riddick, I, Robot, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), the usual ultra-gory shoot-'em-ups (Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil: Apocalypse), a couple of small-screen stars trying to recreate their television successes on the big screen (Ashton Kutcher in The Butterfly Effect, Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Grudge), lots of colorful comic-book adaptations (Hellboy, The Punisher, Spider-Man 2, Catwoman), some mysterious puzzlers that could have been episodes of The Twilight Zone (The Village, The Forgotten), a batch of animated marvels (The Polar Express, The Incredibles, Shrek 2) and plenty of old friends returning to continue their franchises (Thunderbirds, Alien vs. Predator, Seed of Chucky, Exorcist IV: The Beginning).
Many of those films were very good, but in my mind, my pick didn't really have that much competition, because there were very few films that dared to be great. None of them turned out to be as imaginative in both conception and execution as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Though I should add that The Incredibles was a joy, and comes in as my second favorite film of the year.)
Science fiction in written form has been called the literature of ideas. SF has always been about something, that something often being how technological advances have affected society as a whole and each of us as individuals. Too often, science fiction films seem to be about the lack of ideas. Ideas have been replaced by the cinematic equivalent of fireworks and roller coasters, and instead of being asked to think, we're being asked only to ooh and ahh over increasingly greater explosions, as if that should be enough. (Non-SF films are, of course, not immune to the flaw of "the bigger the blast the better.")
Flashier than mere fireworks
Eternal Sunshine aimed to be something more. For those who haven't yet seen the film, it's about a man (Jim Carrey) who learns that his girlfriend (Kate Winslet) has used the mind-altering services of a company called Lacuna Inc. to erase him from her memory. In his bitter misery, he proceeds to do the same to her, and we enter his mind to watch as one by one his memories of his former love are deleted. But as they begin to vanish, he realizes that he still loves the memory of her, that, as Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." And unfortunately, if your memory is erased, it will be as exactly if you have never loved at all.
The story is told in a style more convoluted than that of Pulp Fiction, with the world inside Jim Carrey's skull being given as much weight as the world outside. Time folds in upon intself in an origami of past and present. The thoughtful script comes from Oscar-nominated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who was responsible for both Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, and was translated to film by Michel Gondry, best known up until this point for his music videos. Together, these two unexpected interlopers have demonstrated an understanding that those producing films more easily recognizable as SF have forgotten—that the human heart can be the most alien environment of them all.
Sometimes the best science-fiction film of the year is ours alone, beloved only by those who already love SF or fantasy, and forgotten when it comes time for mainstream critics to make up their top 10 lists; other times our favorites cross over and we have to share them with the rest of the world, the Lord of the Rings trilogy being the most recent notable example. This, I feel, will be another such time, and when the Oscar nominations are announced, I'm confident that Eternal Sunshine's speculative script will be there. Perhaps even Jim Carrey's subdued performance will be recognized as well, though with the year-end crush of Oscar-worthy performances (Jamie Foxx in Ray, Clive Owen in Close, Liam Neeson in Kinsey), I'm afraid that he may be forgotten.
But whatever the Academy decides, Eternal Sunshine will not be forgotten. Long after we barely recall most of this year's high-decibel lightshows, this love poem to real love will continue to move.
Scott Edelman started his trek to the editor-in-chief position at Science Fiction Weekly decades ago, when he began working as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics. Between these two positions, this four-time Hugo Award nominee in the category of Best Editor was the founding editor of the award-winning magazine Science Fiction Age, in addition to editing Sci-Fi Universe, Sci-Fi Flix and Satellite Orbit. Currently, he also edits SCI FI, the official magazine of the SCI FI Channel. His most recent short story appears in the new anthology Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic.
