Eternal Sunshine

I think I have to write reviews two or three times before I get it to where I sorta want it. I don't find myself getting particularly good at writing them, even after a year or so of doing this. I still find myself summarizing rather than evaluating.

Let's try again.

Ostensibly a film about a dysfunctional family--dad's into personal self help, but isn't particular good at the job, goth-ish son reads Nietzche, hates everyone, and won't talk to his family. Daughter, thankfully not smugly cute, wants to win a beauty contest. Granddad's is foul-mouthed, complains about living with the kids, but still cares for the family. Brother is suicidal since grant money went to "second best" Proust author (guess who's first).

Really a film about how we deal with ambition, why we set goals in our life, and what happens when those goals are not met. Ultimately, the message is rather simple: it's the striving that matters, and it's family that matters.

Admittedly, like many films about beauty pageants, it makes fun of beauty pageants, especially those for kids, where the other kids are gaudy and artificial (being painted on as if they were stock cars for display), but it isn't purely a screed against beauty pageants, otherwise, we'd have a plot about overbearing parents.

For a comedy, it's moderately dark, a serious comedy, if you will, marked by observance to detail, such as the VW van that has to be pushed until it gets to third gear. Although the family ends up learning about each other (using the tried and true formula of a road trip to put people together in confined spaces over periods of time, as they learn to like and dislike one another), it's hard to imagine how their lives will be much better afterwards.

But its ability to raise questions about why we value success, why we feel the need to be a winner, makes the film intriguing, even if it never fully answers these questions. Also remarkable for avoiding standard stereotypes (the son, in particular, is strange--not the kind of guy you think would join the military and fly planes). Acting is uniformly good, except Kinnear seems to be on auto-pilot, his character seemingly like many he plays elsewhere. Nice to see Carrell in a modestly serious role, and perhaps ends up being most sympathetic/pathetic of the lot, and the one who gains the most from the trip.