Best Actress 2004: Kate Winslet in The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Kate Winslet received her 4th nomination and 2nd in Best Actress for her performance as Clementine Krucuynski, a free-spirited, wild, yet very fragile girl in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is a masterpiece. It is brillianty written, directed, and acted. It is truly amazing. The journey it takes you on is so magical in every way: heartbreaking, horrifying, dizzying, you name it. Why it didn't get Best Picture and Best Director nominations is beyond me. Well, at least it won Best Original Screenplay... It is about a man named Joel Barish (Jim Carrey)whose girlfriend Clementine decides to erase him from her memory. Miserable and hurt, he decides to do the same. You can imagine what this process might be like, and Eternal Sunshine's version of it is simply surreal. Anyway, in the middle of it, he decides he wants her back and the two begin to try and escape from the memory erasers who are currently dealing with problems of their own.

Clementine Krucynski is the most challenging character yet in this group of nominees. The structure of the film is simply so crazy in relation to her character, given most of her scenes are the memories that are being erased from inside Joel's mind. I think Richard Roeper described it perfectly when he said "You could say Winslet almost plays multiples roles here". And she does them both wonderfully. Winslet disappears into the role of Clementine and never comes back. She captures all facets of the character: Her fun-loving crazy side, her shy awkwardness, her spontaneousness, her vulnerability, and most surprisingly, her dark side. I remember loving the role of Clementine when I first saw it, but Winslet is not afraid to show the more bitter and negative sides of her character. She can be selfish and push people away, and not care about other people's feelings. Yet, this doesn't mean I hate the character , because Winslet certainly makes her like-able.

She also has amazing chemistry with Jim Carrey, the two are simply so natural together. She's everything he's not, and he's everything she's not, but the two are able to give back so much to each other. I also love the scenes where Clementine is not in his head- Winslet is 100% believable and is so natural and real. I find all of it so terific.

I wasn't as blown away by her as I maybe used to be though. Perhaps it's because Clementine isn't quite as love-able as I thought or maybe it's because I wanted to see more of her (The film follows Carey's character much more).I'd go with the latter. But I still think it's a truly terrific performance that I love. She gets