Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Collector's Edition

There's no doubt that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a genius film that will join the cannon of Charlie Kaufman creations (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation); his is one of the most creative storytelling minds of our time. When the first edition of the DVD arrived in fall, it featured a perfectly serviceable hodgepodge of commentary, interviews and "making of" featurettes that explored Kaufman's excited script about two people who decide to erase each other from their memories, only to rediscover (backwards) what they've meant to each other. Regardless of the DVD issue — which wasn't spectacular by any means, but certainly wasn't a grave disappointment either — the film was the true treasure to return to time and again. It is this love and loyalty for the movie (voted the favourite of 2004 in our annual Readers Poll) that is now being exploited with this two-disc "Collector's Edition." Disc one is exactly the same as the previous issue: fairly snoozy commentary by director Gondry and screenwriter Kaufman, some reasonable deleted scenes and a clever interview between Jim Carrey and Gondry. For the second disc, they've added crappier deleted scenes, an off-the-cuff interview between Kate Winslet and the director and another relatively short featurette. And hey, I'm a big fan of the film so I'm glad to check it out. But in terms of cheap-ass cash grabs trying to exploit movie buffs' love for an awesome piece of work, this is pretty shameless. Plus: Polyphonic Spree video, more. (Focus/Alliance Atlantis)