Is ignorance really bliss? In the dark and twisted depths of a female adolescent’s mind, it just might be—at least when it comes to love and loss. From a young age, girls are socialized by romantic comedies, melodramas, and Disney’s fairy tale fallacies. I didn’t really believe that a charming prince on a white horse would come to rescue me one day, but I did become increasingly perplexed by this thing called “love.”
Fast-forward through divorced parents, a high school all too reminiscent of Mean Girls, and two tragic relationships, it’s no wonder why my concept of love was (and probably still is) a little screwy. Enter Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “What is reality? What defines you? What would you do differently?” The questions that delineated my emotional anguish were now conveniently represented in a 108-minute film. “…It's a horror movie that dares to hope—to hope even for the worst, since the thorniest love makes us feel most alive, even in our misery” (Corliss). I could not have said it better myself.
What sets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind apart from Hollywood’s romantic comedy cliché is its unique and bittersweet interpretation of destiny, relationships, and denial. In my youthful solemn desperation, my mother’s soft coo “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” wasn’t much of a comfort. After watching Joel chase Clementine through memories, erased memories, and distorted realities, I was sure that I would have rather never loved. Todd McCarthy from Variety relates, “If films about coping with memory loss and/or reverse-order storytelling now constitute a mini-genre, then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is arguably the best of the lot. It is certainly the most emotionally resonant… the culmination of all the cinematic sleight-of-hand… is a romance that winds up at the most seductive destination for a love story—the beginning” (McCarthy). While the ex-lovers-turned-strangers-turned-lovers awkwardly listen to their recorded lamentations about their now-forgotten relationship, the film ends with “a beautiful and searching last scene—irrational in its hopefulness yet completely convincing” (Edelstein).
The plot of the film climaxes in what seems like an apathetic cop-out. However, as J. Hoberman from The Village Voice explains, “Eternal Sunshine is not consistent in its illogic, but there's no denying the pathos of [the] desperate fight…” (Hoberman). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s obscure presentation of love, memory, and identity renders it a modern and thoughtful criticism—and convinced me that (maybe) my mother was right, after all.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has had an impact on how I see myself and how I see the world. Marjorie Baumgarten from The Austin Chronicle explains, “Oftentimes, love can lead to regret. In the best-case scenario, we learn from the experience and move on. But what if it were possible to eliminate the regret—and not only that, but extinguish the memory altogether?” (Baumgarten). Before I saw the film, I would have gladly signed up with Dr. Mierzwiak at Lacuna, Inc. to forget my past and not have to deal with the pain of breaking up and moving on. But somehow, as Joel’s mind backtracks through fleeting memories of Clementine, it’s the little nuances of their relationship that end up having the greatest impact on his heart and mind. Corliss muses, “The film says love could be the emotional equivalent of muscle memory; it's buried so deep that even modern science, or science fiction, can't reach it. Love isn't what we remember; it's what we are” (Corliss).
One scene in the film particularly highlights the core ideology of the plot:
“[Joel] goes to a heartbreaking time in which [Clementine] talks about her fears of being ugly as a child, and he pleads with the technicians…who can't hear him… ‘Please let me keep this memory. [Just this one.]’ In that instant…the picture transforms into a different kind of story, in which the object is not to let go of one's memories but hang onto them, whatever the cost… [He] must look back—and back and back—or his beloved will be lost forever” (Edelstein). My teenage angst subtly gave way to the realization that being who I am has a great deal to do with becoming who I am. Amnestic denial of my experiences would only perpetuate my self-proclaimed bitterness. As the film’s title theme prophesies, “change of heart, it will astound you…everybody’s gotta learn sometime.”
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is generally perceived as an obscure and elaborate representation of a romantic comedy. Its bohemian romanticization of love and obsession perplexes the viewer with a twisted, emotionally suspenseful plot. Hoberman analyses, “Filled with the writer's trademark neurotic characters, grungy atmospherics, and downbeat emphasis on domestic discord, it's a baroque and intermittently brilliant brain twister so convoluted that it inevitably deposits the viewer in an alternate universe” (Hoberman). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an exploration of the mind and subconscious. It plays upon society’s conventional definitions of love, fear, desire, and loneliness. It addresses the themes of inner turmoil and absolution, which build up to a self-actualizing catharsis. David Sterritt from The Christian Science Monitor asserts, “Kaufman sees the human mind—and its often preposterous thought processes—as fiction's last great frontier to explore…[Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind] is a complicated story that demands your full attention…[and] unfolds…at a mind-bending pace. This alone makes it a hugely refreshing respite from ordinary multiplex fare” (Sterritt). Through plot and unique exposition, the film transports the viewer to a place in his mind where logic and intention are secondary to hope and vindication.
A key element in the film’s success is its careful, nuanced character development. The viewer is immediately invested in Joel and Clementine’s maladjusted personas, and their delicate characterization allows the viewer’s suspension of disbelief to take precedence over reason and judgment. Reviewer Mariko McDonald from Film Threat interprets Jim Carrey’s atypical role as Joel: “…in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carrey has actually crafted a character from his soul and his performance is truly remarkable. Carrey’s Joel is shy, nervous and introverted…we generally care about him… Gondry has exposed a beautiful and vulnerable side to [Carrey]” (McDonald). Carrey’s success in the film is furthered by Kate Winslet’s representation of Clementine. Winslet’s Clementine is quirky, independent, and outgoing; her demeanor counters Carrey’s dispassionate indecisiveness. McCarthy analyzes, “Clementine is a live wire who…onscreen emerges as a life force who simply needs to be channeled and focused to achieve some fulfillment…Winslet is terrifically witty, spontaneous and emotionally transparent.” (Baumgarten). As the story of Joel and Clementine’s time together unfolds through Joel’s transient memories, the inherent contrast between the characters’ personalities makes the recounting of their relationship evermore bittersweet and tragic.
My personal connection to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind regards memory, identity, and love. Reviewer Mick LaSalle scoffs at Joel and Clementine’s relationship by claiming, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an elaborate construction around a very small idea—that people tend to make exactly the same mistakes in love, over and over again…[It] is not about how love conquers all but about how people can be weak and foolish and waste their lives on stupid, destructive relationships. It's a cold movie about love that was meant to be cold” (LaSalle). The film offers only that which the viewer is willing to receive—one with a hardened heart would surely miss the desperation and profoundness of Joel and Clementine’s journey. Edelstein imparts, “Kaufman is using a bizarre futuristic scenario to tell us something about the here and now: about the loss of our most vivid loves to the impermanence of memory; and about the life we lose when, to go on living, we force ourselves to forget” (Edelstein). Joel and Clementine argue, become distant, and have their memories of each other erased. Yet, they somehow reunite in Montauk and instantly become enamored with each other. Is it chance? Is it destiny? Are they “soul mates?” The unanswered questions are what define the film—in fact, the entire film is an unanswered question itself.
The viewer is left at the end of the film at the beginning of Joel and Clementine’s second attempt at love. So what is the point? What is the significance of the spotless mind? McCarthy muses, “…The story's emotional dynamic is hard to miss, as are its glancing but touching reflections on the centrality of memory in defining one's personality, and the richness and value of both positive and negative memories in the overall scheme of life” (McCarthy).
Corliss concedes,
Corliss concedes,
“If it's meant to happen, it will, over and over. You can't erase destiny. That's just one view of an amnesiac romance so rich and demanding, it could mean anything. Kaufman may be counting on the audience's will, insistence and yearning to create a coherent love story from the shards and shrapnel he provides us. The movie warns, This will be a bumpy ride, steered by two people who can be hard to like, making detours into wormholes, in a plot that laps itself. Care to come along? And like Joel, with love in his eyes and lust for a strange adventure, I say O.K.” (Corliss).
I have come to find that ultimately, love and memory have shaped my identity in a way that cannot (and should not) be erased or forgotten. So, as I listen to Elliott Smith and reminisce about people and things gone by, I will face who I have become and hope that everything will be okay.
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