While most moviegoers are quick to jump on one side or the other about Charlie Kaufman's talents as a screenwriter -- some love his work, others hate it -- one thing is for sure, he certainly comes up with original ideas. His creativity shines through in screenplays for such unusual films as Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Human Nature. Kaufman's latest brain tickler is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a story about the option to erase someone from your mind when a relationship goes wrong.     

By visiting Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) at the Lacuna Inc. clinic, one can have their memory of someone erased. Then a card is sent to the erased person notifying them the action has happened and telling them not to contact that person again. This is what happens to Joel (Jim Carrey) when his relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) sours. Wounded by her rebuff, Joel at first accepts her action and decides he, too, will use Lacuna to erase her memory from his mind. But as the doctor's crew, Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Mary (Kirsten Dunst), begin the procedure; Joel decides halfway through he doesn't want to erase Clementine's memories and tries to will the procedure to stop.

Like most Kaufman scripts, this story circles around itself and goes from beginning to end and back several times, techniques that the "hate it" group find annoying. At one point even Carrey had some problems figuring out what he was filming. "It was a challenge to know where you are in this script," he said. "Several times when we were going through the dream memory, I asked Michel (director Michel Gondry), is it lucid or the way it was?"

Somewhat less imbued with the comedic aspects of most Kaufman works, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind clearly resonates with both Kaufman and Gondry's (who, along with Pierre Bismuth, contributed story elements) overall theme about romance -- an idea Carrey responded to as well. "In the moment, erasing a memory is an interesting idea;  but in retrospect you can always look back on something that was a disaster and find some gems in there," Carrey stated. "When I read the script I enjoyed that this was not like a lot of movies about memory. It's a different perspective about being erased and how that would feel, and that was the strongest pull for me, when he finds out that she erased him. It's a brutal thing to anyone's ego, but a male ego especially."

Although Carrey does have some funny moments in the film, he and Winslet are almost reversed in terms of expectations. He's the more serious one; she, with her colorful new hairdos everyday, the more hilarious. "I play the chaotic figure who pulls silly faces," said Winslet. "The script was unbelievably clever and brilliant, and it had a heart to it as well."

Rounding out more of the funnier moments in the film are Dunst, Ruffalo and Elijah Wood (Patrick) as the Lacuna erase team. All talented actors, they bring a heightened sense of awareness to their roles, yet blend into the story without overshadowing it.

Filmed by Gondry with few special effects, the film often has a documentary feel to it. Gondry, who also directed Kaufman's Human Nature, does a keen job of working through the memory process and presenting those before-and-after memories. Keen, that is, if you don't mind not knowing where you're at in the story.

(Released by Focus Features and rated "R" for language, some drug and sexual content.)