Getting the Eternal Sunshine Girl

During the few days I was reading “Getting the Girl” by Markus Zusak, I happened to watch the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” written by Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth.

The similarities are amazing. Both protagonists, Cameron Wolfe and Joel Barish are quiet, reserved individuals who escape into their journals to find meaning in their lives. Both characters fall in love with alternative style girls, Octavia and Clementine respectively, and the stories are interwoven with Neo-surrealist imagery and poetic language.

The “words” that Zusak uses at the end of each chapter exude a strangeness that is poetic and surreal. From page 171: “I imagine myself in a room, where some / shattered pieces are strewn on the floor, / in front of me. […] These pieces on the ground. / Are made of me.”

I really think Zusak’s book would make a great teen movie, especially if a director wove in some of this imagery. It would definitely take the teen movie to new levels, which is something the genre desperately needs. Gondry handled it masterfully in “Eternal Sunshine” and even incorporated images and words from Joel’s journal into the fabric of the narrative.

Wouldn’t it be great to take a great piece of YA literature like “Getting the Girl” and then making it into a cutting edge YA film?

Great book, great film.