I tried writing a little more about Eternal Sunshine this morning and found myself really struggling. There’s something about Charlie Kaufman scripts that seem to really have me empathising to a degree that makes successful articulation of my emotional and intellectual response very, very difficult; the same was true for Adaptation, which was generally thought of to be an inferior film, and even, to a lesser extent, Being John Malkovich, which was excellent but slightly sillier.

Here’s what it was about, I think, in as much of a nutshell as I can get: it was a story about true love, but the film was really about second chances. It was about learning from our mistakes and how we can’t if we forget, about accepting certain realities about who we are and our own limitations, and ultimately, it seemed to me that Mr Kaufman believes that love will find a way.

It’s not a naive sentiment; the film explores the issues of true love in the context of the complications of real human interaction, dark edges and all. In fact, most of the film is dark edges; but casting those shadows, I think, is an uber-metaphorical ultra-poncey sunshine of optimism.

It’s really, really good. And I do love Kirsten Dunst, and Kate Winslet both. Wonderful. And Jim Carrey gets whole new respect from me; I’m not one of those who harbours an irrational dislike for the rubber-faced comedy actor: in fact, seeing him in The Truman Show and The Majestic demonstrated the breadth of his range. This movie really shows him at his best.

Complete aside: I also saw the trailer for the new Coen brothers film, which looks like it could be entertaining, especially if you like Tom Hanks.