"blessed are the forgetful..."

In honor of Valentine's Day, I just finished watching one of my favorite "romantic comedies" ever. I don't necessarily know if you can call it that, since it doesn't fit the traditional model, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is amazing. The trailer confuses you and leads you to believe that it is your typical run-of-the-mill Jim Carrey slapstick comedy [and I didn't post the trailer for that reason], but this is his most brilliant performance to date. I remember we tried watching it in my psychology class in high school and everyone was so immature and we didn't pay attention so we were completely lost, but a few years later I actually sat down to watch it and literally had tears in my eyes at the end. There is comedy, of course, but the story is so real and touching, despite the whole fantasy element. The writing is GENIUS. It's one of those movies that makes you think. It's about relationships, but it's perfect to watch when you're in love OR going through a breakup... doesn't matter. Just amazing, amazing, amazing!

I recommend you watch immediately!

The basic premise: A man finds out that his (ex)girlfriend has a procedure done to erase every trace of him from her memory, so in retaliation, he decides to do the same. While going back through the memories (and they jump around in time), he realizes how much some of them mean and that he wants to hold on to them, no matter what happened.  The "end" has an interesting little twist.

I also recommend (500) Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, who are both adorable. Perhaps even less optimistic, it's another one that gets you thinking about life and fate. It too jumps around in time, but it is visually stunning and refreshing. You are warned that "this is a story about boy meets girl, but you should know up front, this is not a love story." It definitely strays from your usual cliche romantic comedy, but surprisingly, you finish with a sense of hope that you're not expecting. I think I find it so refreshing because--even though I went into it looking for a happily ever after type tale--it ended the way most real stories do, which was much more satisfying.

FYI -- Both Eternal Sunshine & (500) Days are on iMDB's Top 250 list, at numbers 59 and 230 respectively :)