Actor Jim Carrey Takes On Less Humorous Role in Eternal Suns

 

Alan Silverman

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet co-star in a bittersweet romance from the fertile imagination of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, whose previous films include Being John Malkovich and Adaptation and directed by French-born Michel Gondry. Alan Silverman has a look at Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
Opposites certainly attract in the case of talkative Clementine and taciturn Joel when they meet, by chance, on a commuter¹ train.
But the encounter might not be by chance and they may have gone through all this before. It all seems new because they fell in love, argued and split up; then, thanks to a novel medical procedure, each has had all memories of the other erased³.
While the story has whimsical turns, Jim Carrey as Joel is serious and introspective, with none of the joking around and comic antics for which he's famous; but Carrey insists the character is not without humor.
"He is not a humorless character at all," insists Carey. "I think Joel has immense and amazing things going on inside his brain that spill out onto his page when he's doing his diaries and things like that. When Clementine comes by she is kind of like the outward manifestation⁴ of what he has inside of himself, but he can't express. I don't think he is humorless or uninteresting. I think he's really complex.
Kate Winslet gets to cut loose as the spontaneous Clementine, but the heart of the romance draws her in.
"I just love the fact that here was a very simple love story about two people who were the polar opposites of each other, but had this crazy relationship together that was very real. They had good times and bad times and then that's it," she says. "They are meant to be together; in truth, I really believe that. They try to erase² each other from each other's lives and as the movie goes on and you watch those memories being erased from most recent to most past, you realize how fantastic they were together and how they really do love each other and really did have some great times. So it all sort of happens in reverse and it's the telling of the tale that makes it more unorthodox."
Of course, "unorthodox" is a mild way of describing this or most any script by imaginative screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who says if the story seems confusing to describe, that is what he intended.
"I think definitely in this movie confusion and finding their way is part of the process. There's a lot of confusion in Joel's mind and we wanted the audience to be with that for a while to feel what Joel is feeling," Kaufman says. "The audience is almost with Joel every step of the way. When he first meets Clementine at the beginning of the movie he thinks it's the first time they've met and we think that too; and when we watch his memories from the end of their relationship, we are with the anger and the hurt that Joel has because of those experiences. Then as he starts to uncover the better memories, we start to see Clementine in a different way, because we've never seen that side of her before. So it is intentional⁵."
Jim Carrey says he could not help but reflect on the romances in his real life as he was portraying⁷ Joel; and he thinks the appeal of Kaufman's script is that, in the end, it says the course of true love need not be ... and, perhaps, cannot be ... perfect. "The thing about this movie is you accept the flaws, you accept what was wrong and you move on. You love the person for who they are, flaws and all," Carrey says. "You can't help who you love, either. Part of doing this role is you have to open up old wounds. I also wanted to express a lot of anger and resentment⁸ of old hurts past; and what ended up happening ... and I'm really thankful it did ... is that, when it was all put together, it became like a love letter to everybody I have loved."
注释：
talkative [5tC:kEtiv] adj. 健谈的
taciturn [5tAsitE:n] adj. 沉默寡言的
split up 吵架，分手
thanks to 由于
erase [i5reiz] vt. 抹去
whimsical [5(h)wimzikEl] adj. 反复无常的，古怪的
introspective [7intrEu5spektiv] adj.（好）反省的
antics [5AntIks] n. 滑稽的动作，古怪的姿态
spill out 散出
manifestation [7mAnifes5teiFEn] n. 显示，表现
cut loose 摆脱
spontaneous [spCn5teinjEs] adj. 自发的，自然产生的
polar [5pEJlE(r)] adj. 正好相反的
in reverse 反过来，相反
unorthodox [5Qn5C:WEdCks] adj. 非正统的，异端的
script [skript] n. 剧本
screenwriter [5skri:n7raitE] n. 电影剧本作家，编剧家
reflect on 思考，反思
portray⁶ [pC:5trei] v. 扮演
flaw [flC:] n. 缺点，瑕疵
open up 揭露，展开
resentment [ri5zentmEnt] n. 怨恨，愤恨

1 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

2 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

3 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 manifestation   

n.表现形式；表明；现象

参考例句：

• Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
• What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。

5 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

6 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

7 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

8 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。