photo courtesy of FOCUS FEATURES Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet star in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a movie about how objective reality means nothing when it's up against a bad relationship.

I thought "The Matrix" trilogy was excellent. While others held their noses aloft at the cheesy special effects and pseudo-intellectual musings, I maintained that there was something genuinely satisfying about seeing a movie that was fun to watch, but also tried to make you question the way you perceive reality ÷ and there was an awesome rave scene.

But perhaps you, too, thought "The Matrix" was kind of stupid. Maybe "The Matrix" series didn't answer all the questions you've ever had about love, philosophy, perception, and sweet, sweet special effects. Then I recommend you see "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

"Sunshine" is the latest from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." Those films also dealt with realities that seemed to coexist peacefully before, through intention or accident, their parallel-ness was destroyed by the film's characters. Both films also seemed more intent on showing the cleverness of their underlying concepts, rather than genuine characters with whom you could empathize. "Eternal Sunshine" changes that trend.

Jim Carrey stars as Joel, a shy, sort of boring guy who, almost by fate, meets and begins dating Clementine (Kate Winslet). It's a classic film pairing: She's eccentric and impulsive; he's a responsible stuffed shirt. They fall in love immediately and, of course, break up horribly.

Joel doesn't realize how final the breakup is until he tries to visit Clementine at work. She asks like she doesn't even know him. Her reaction (or lack thereof) to seeing him isn't a ploy or a metaphor; Clementine has had every memory of Joel and their relationship wiped from her mind by a company that specializes in helping people forget their past.

Joel then decides to erase Clementine from his brain to spite her. At first, the pain of each memory he has to relive during the erasing process eases his decision. But when he starts to relive the good memories he's created with Clementine, he realizes he has to stop the process, any way he can.

Director Michel Gondry, whose background is in music video direction, shows Joel's memories disappearing in jarring and beautiful ways. Sometimes Clementine simply disappears; other times she and the people around her fade away like a developed Polaroid picture fading back. Joel tries to hide her ÷ or the memory of her ÷ away from the technicians who are hard at work getting rid of her. That seems to trigger the fucking-up of Joel's head. He's changing his memories and, in essence, changing the things he's trying to save. It no longer matters how things really happened ÷ that the relationship was bad, that sometimes it was wonderful, that they had experiences together that made the relationship oscillate between good and bad. All Joel wants is to save Clementine, regardless of the context in which he has to place her. It not only affects the way he remembers Clementine, but the way he remembers the placement of objects and people in his memory.

Though Spike Jonze did a fine job with "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation," Gondry seems to be the only director who could match the genius of the script. And Carrey's performance makes it hard to remember he used to be the jackass from the "Ace Ventura" movies. Joel's pain over the decaying relationship and his decaying memory is palpable. But, still, this is a comedy. The futility of trying to change the way you remember the past can be pretty funny ÷ especially when you remember that all this shit takes place in "The Matrix" anyway, so it don't mean jack.