Granted, those latter two aren’t near as successful as the Jonze films, but that still doesn’t diminish their uniqueness or unabashed subversive indiscretion. If anything, the only weakness you could throw at Kaufman is that his movies tend to lack in the way of a heart. Sure “Adaptation” was a wittily original satire of the writing process, that still doesn’t mean there were any characters you could go all warm and fuzzy caring about.

That all changes with the writer’s latest head trip “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Reuniting with “Human Nature” director Michel Gondry, Kaufman once again dares to go into a twisty universe uniquely his own. But where this film easily could have been nothing more than a shimmering showcase of directorial flourish, both writer and director manage to discover the most intimate of emotions boiling within the psyche; the flowers of love’s wistful effervescent chicanery blossoming across the screen. It’s only March, yet I can’t imagine being any better than this one in 2004.

Mild-mannered drone Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover his flighty and emotional girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) has had all memories of their relationship erased. Impossible? Not so according to Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), inventor of the process and the one who performed the procedure on Joel’s now clueless ex. He and his crew of technicians; the somewhat nerdy Stan (Mark Ruffalo), the scarily needy Patrick (Elijah Wood), the iridescently cheerful Mary (Kirsten Dunst); slowly convince the infuriated and befuddled man this could be just the thing to get the girl – literally – out of his head. After all, if Clementine could do it to him, why shouldn’t Joel do just the same thing to her?

But as the memories start disappear, the once upset ex-boyfriend rediscovers how much he loves Clementine and just how dear those memories – both good and bad – of their time together mean to him. Deep inside his brain Joel attempts to escape the procedure, hiding Clementine within other memories ranging from childhood trauma to baby bath-time. As Dr. Mierzwiak, much like a cerebrally infatuated Sherlock Holmes, tries to track him down it becomes more and more clear to Joe that even as every cherished memory disappears Clementine is that special type of girl you just can’t get out of your head.

Combining elements of Phillip K. Dick, Stanley Kubrick and Charlie Chaplin, Kaufman and Gondry have constructed a picture unlike any other. “Eternal Sunshine” is a wondrous experience that only comes around once in blue moon, each facet working in exhilarating tandem with every other to create a deliriously dynamic whole. But what makes the movie so compellingly brilliant is the thunderously beating heart constantly thumping throughout the picture, no recent movie able to so deftly dive into the perplexing insanity of love and romance.

Needless to say, Gondry’s direction is superb. In all honesty, after the rather ponderous style he displayed in “Human Nature,” I was no where near prepared for his majestic and stylistically controlled work here. Nothing happens in this movie he doesn’t want to have happen; every move of Ellen Kuras’ camera, every one of Valdís Óskarsdóttir’s edits, feel as if they are made solely at Gondry’s discretion. It is a masterful display, almost a declaration, this movie a calling card confidently boasting the arrival of a talented filmmaker destined for greatness.

It helps that he and Kaufman have assembled a cast singularly suited for just this type of material. Winslet, playing what is easily the picture’s toughest role, absolutely soars as the ephemeral Clementine. What is so amazing about her work here is that the part as written isn’t really a flesh and blood human being, but instead a composite of all the good, bad and indifferent memories of an increasingly stressed out ex-boyfriend. It is a role built completely inside the head of someone else, yet Winslet fleshes her out beautifully, Clementine a songbird of human emotional attachment so shimmering it is easy to see why Joel fights so hard to keep her memory alive.

Ruffalo, Wood, Wilkinson and especially Winslet all turn in bitingly acerbic supporting turns, while Carrey commands the stage with one of his most self-assured and resolutely effective performances to date. Matching his career-best work in “The Truman Show” and “The Man in the Moon,” the “In Living Color” veteran once more shows just how good an actor he can really be. Whether playing a diminutive Joel hiding under a kitchen table or kicking in exasperated fury on a snow-filled beach, Carrey’s performance is so good I completely forgot I was watching the formerly loathsome Ace Ventura and became completely captivated by Joel and his plight. It’s a slingshot of an exhibition; Carrey going through so many different emotional peaks in valleys in just a moment’s notice it is almost impossible to keep up.