Noise in the Shape of Writing

Answering the door to trick or treaters is not one of my favorite jobs. As odd as it may sound, I much prefer the task of walking door to door with my daughter, with all the attendant neighborly niceties and "remember to say thank you's." And it's not because I get to steal her candy, being her chaperone!

Well, I do, but I would get to do that whether or not I was chaperone.

The reason I hate the candy-givert role is twofold: One, if you don't wear a costume when you answer the door... they complain. And two, if you compliment *their* costumes and you get the name of the costume wrong, they cry.

I'd just plain dispense with the talking at the doorway entirely but the kids and the mothers (who designed the costumes) love it. I know that from all the times I have done the door to door thing.

Case in point, tonight I called a girl in a grey cloak with dark face paint a "ghost" and she went away saying "Mom, he called me a ghost! Jeez." She was uncategorically depressed from the incident involving the old man... me. And I don't even want to talk about how many teenagers called me "sir." That alone created some "age parity" inside me the likes of which I hadn't suffered in years.

***

In better news, however, I have added yet another movie to my top ten. I shudder to think of what poor movie was bumped from the "10" list, so let's assume there's room for many more.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", which was penned by Charlie Kaufman of "Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich" fame, achieved a rare "final stretch" coup. There are a handful of movies like this... ones where I have given up all hope of things being tied together nicely -- usually I assign a very low numerical percentage chance of pulling through -- and almost all of them fail as predicted. But "Spotless" is the first one ever to come from the back of the pack, so to speak, and slingshot into siblimeness.

It speaks to inescapable emotions we all feel... loneliness, inadequacy, jealousy, shyness, anger, love, craziness to name a few... and does so with heart. It also does so with little in the way of overbearing plot. It's like a P.T. Anderson movie with less wimsy and more stark bitterness. Jim Carrey plays seemingly against type as a withdrawn loser who falls in love for the first time. With little in the way of facial shannanigans and prat falls, Carrey has to rely instead on heartfelt portrayals. And he can do it. Kate Winslet is utterly convincing as a manic depressive, childish chick whose hair color changes almost with each day. Frodo is good too, managing to channel as much Sean Astin as is hobbitly possble. In fact I love the way the secondary characters have story arcs that get fleshed out and completed by the end of the movie. Shouldn't all films end that way? Well, as we all know, they don't.

Now, the film tanked in theaters cause -- I contend -- it was misrepresented. I saw it as a comedy, based on the trailers. I never got around to seeing it while it was on the big screen, but I think it didn't get great press cause people were startled by it's lack of fart jokes. It also starts confusingly and slowly. I was ready to throw in the towel after about 20 minutes. Michel Gondry's terseness and dry editing were offputting to say the least. But it eventually becomes fluid... it is the way Jim Carrey's character's mind is working when we meet him. We just don't know it yet. Once the plot begins to thick (and you have seen the trailer, so you know it's when he gets the "procedure" initialized), the pace of things gels in a good way.

Music by Jon Brion could have been a bit more bold, IMO. And some hand-holding for the audience's sake might have helped. But by and large, this is a wonderful movie -- by turns moving and sad.

Pat says "if you liked Magnoilia or Punch Drunk Love, but wished it had been shot by the guy who did 'Pi', then perhaps this is your movie." And if association with "Pi" is a turn off (it is for most), you should still see this movie cause I am most likely exaggerating. Honestly, it's quite good.

After all, it's in my top ten... or twelve.