“Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?”
Ever wish you could completely vanish portions of your life? Although many people already do this through denial, alcoholism, and drug use. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind imagines this. That for a price you can go through a safe procedure, which helps eliminates painful memories. Which memory would you erase if you could? An embarrassing thing you did, a traumatic event, a painful breakup, or things you shouldn’t have said to a loved one?
Memory is the basis for all of our relationships. Memories are often taken for granted. We rarely cherish them. We sometimes focus more on the bad memories than those that are good. So naturally painful memories would be the bulk of the procedures and with the film the focus of the mind being erased is the pain caused by a breakup.
Jim Carrey plays Joel who thoughtlessly tells his girlfriend Clementine some hurtful things and she walks out on him. Sometime later he tries to talk her, but she acts like she doesn’t know him, which absolutely tramples on his broken heart. He finally learns that she actually doesn’t know who he is. She went to get the procedure to have her memory of him erased forever. Depressed and distressed, he decides to go through the procedure as well. During the procedure he dreams through all the memories of Clementine. It’s going fine until Joel gets to a state of clarity and realize he’s asleep and slowly saying goodbye to every little special thing that he and Clementine had. In the process of erasing her he falls back in love with her. Saying goodbye to their love both the happy and sad memories.
I like the fact the film doesn’t bother with the mechanics of the memory wiping procedure. It’s just accepted and people accept the use of this technology despite the conceivable negative outcomes is unnervingly accurate to the world we live in these days. Visually its stunning and the cinematography is phenomenal. The performances are great. The actors play off one another realistically. The love story isn’t going to captivate you like Somewhere in Time, but definitely has depth than your typical mindless romantic comedy. The best part of the film, to me, is its sincerity. It’s not pretentious. It’s quite heartfelt. Anyone who has said things they instantly regretted or have been in a bad breakup would definitely feel the everything Joel and Clementine go through.
4.8 out of 5
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