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 2004 R / Drama Romance Directed by: Starring: |
- Would you erase me?
Summary Capsule
- After finding out his ex-girlfriend had him completely erased from her memory, a guy goes in for the same process but then decides to hold onto his memories even as they disappear and fall apart around him
Mutant Meter
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Kyle's Rating: Like the sailor said (quote): "Ain’t that a hole in the boat?"
Kyle's Review: Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind is a really good movie.
"Light up my life / no one can help me now." What if you met a soul mate? Someone who gave you the happiest times of your entire life? Got it? Now, what happens when it goes bad? It’s happened before. It’ll happen again. All we can do is deal. But what if there was a (seemingly) magical way to deal with it, to erase all the good and the bad times so that it doesn’t hurt or anything because, as far as you’re now concerned, it never happened in the first place? Would it be a terrifying infringement on our personal/mental space? Or would it be a multi-million dollar industry, another comfort provided by the wonders of scientific breakthroughs?
So would I erase my memory? Hard to say. I’ve come as close as scientifically possible. That is, after emerging from the rubble of what is, to date, my most horrific break-up with one of the most significant yet insane girls in my life, I ripped up all the pictures I had of her, deleted her emails, burned (burned!) her letters, and tried to delete her from my waking mind. It wasn’t easy. We had come within a paycheck of moving in together, and after I moved away and was kind of a **** in ending things, she used a potent mix of lies and half-truths to absolutely decimate my reputation and a large number of friendships at my first college. So there was plenty of baggage that both directly and indirectly reminded me on a consistent basis of this girl. It wasn’t until I started up at a new college and gathered a new group of friends (and began a newfound obsession with the music of The Beatles) that all the color started finally bleeding out of my memories of her, and it wasn’t until I met a true soul mate that the girl finally achieved the desired status in my head: a land marker on my heart that’ll never go away, but now just throbs like a sore tooth every so often, and twice on the weekends. Compared to the twisting, burning, gut-churning, nail-splitting, screaming migraine of loss it used to be, I don’t mind the toothache.
But I’ll be darned if I don’t now wish I had just one picture left to keep in my shoebox in my closet. Something, anything. I wish I had a piece of her handwriting, because I remain convinced she had the most unique way of swirling her Js but I just can’t remember, you know? Oh well.
One of the great songs on the Clueless soundtrack ("My Forgotten Favorite" by Velocity Girl) asks "Would it be all that bad to forget about my favorite girl?" Or I think it does; the end of the verse is kind of garbled, but I don’t want to know for sure in case it’s something different, ‘cause I like my current interpretation.
And my current answer to that song is the answer I’ve always had: yes. Yes, it would be bad. To lose such a profound piece of my life would be devastating. I’m not sure I’d be me anymore. I can understand how someone who has experienced one of the more abominable elements of the world (stuff I don’t want to go into, but you can imagine from seeing the nightly news) would jump at the chance to erase their minds. But when it comes to love, I’d want to keep the interior stuff. Unless it was, ah, medically-treatable, but thankfully I haven’t had to deal with that itchy world of delights yet.
"I still haven’t found what I’m looking for" - Imagine feeling that way all the time (like we all do now anyway) but harboring the sneaking suspicion that you might have found it once, but blasted it out of your brain when it turned sour on you. That’s a central dilemma here, the way the film flips and manipulates time and place and reality allows Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet), or versions of them *wink*, to consider such thoughts. It’s terrifying, it’s deeply personal, and it’s completely understandable. Most importantly, it’s hugely entertaining and heartbreakingly thoughtful. I don’t know that it’s one of the best films of all-time, but I do know it was just what I needed to see right now. Nice and smooth. Good work.
Drew's Rating: I had a rating, but I can't seem to remember what it was…
Drew's Review: Quick show of hands: how many people reading this married (and stayed with) their high school sweetheart? If that's you, congratulations. No sarcasm intended - it's terrific that you found love at such a young age and were able to maintain it through all the changes that occur as people grow older. Kudos.
But what if you really could?
Such is the dilemma facing Joel (Jim Carrey), who discovers that ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) spontaneously decided to have their entire relationship excised from her memory through cutting edge (if a bit haphazard) brain alteration. And in the time-honored tradition of jilted lovers everywhere ("Take my house, will you? Well maybe I'll just BURN IT DOWN! Are you happy now? Huh?"), he decides to even the score by having the same procedure performed on himself. But when Joel's subconscious starts having second thoughts midway through the procedure, he and the figment of his imagination that represents Clementine have to fight to help her escape the erasure, while also keeping creepy lab tech Patrick (Elijah Wood) from romancing the real Clementine using information from her erased memories of Joel. Because, really, that goes a bit beyond asking her old boyfriend what her favorite kind of flowers are.
Kyle already did a great job of analyzing all the deep, philosophical implications of what such a procedure would mean (thanks!), leaving me free to just talk about the film. It is an odd one, but unlike some of the more reviled movies in MRFH history (I'm looking at you, Doom Generation), it's not weird just for the sake of being weird. Joel's subconscious, where much of the film takes place, is a sometimes strange landscape with repeating scenery and dreamlike qualities, amplified by the brain damage taking place around him, yet somehow it still manages to feel accessible and inviting. Some of the costuming and set decoration choices are inspired, and the morphing faces and landscapes due to the procedure manage to be off-putting without crossing the line into scary… just keeping an eye on the background to see what changes during pivotal scenes should keep you occupied for a viewing or two.
While the main focus of Sunshine is (rightly) Joel's struggle to preserve his Clementine, the subplot(s) regarding the employees of the memory erasure center are a necessary evil, if only to provide occasional cuts back to the real world. I'll be honest, I didn't care in the slightest about Mark Ruffalo's character, and Mary (Kirsten Dunst) couldn't have broadcasted her crush on Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) any more blatantly, though I think that was intentional. She started out as an immensely annoying character who managed to acquire some depth near the film's end, which was a nice surprise. But it's Elijah Wood who truly deserves credit, for the portrayal of a character who doesn't commit any serious crimes yet still manages to be ten times creepier than even his character from Sin City. Sometimes the quiet, socially awkward nerd is ten times as off-putting as the obnoxious frat boy, and Wood carries that axiom to the extreme with a well-balanced performance.
Sunshine is a subtle movie - it subtly clues you in to how much Joel still cares about Clementine, despite all their fights. It subtly makes you realize just how horribly Patrick is violating Clementine, not in a physical sense but through a thousand stolen moments. And in the end, it subtly makes you realize that no matter how much we may regret some of our past relationships, no matter how badly they ended, still they played their parts in shaping how we've come to be who we are. Without the girl who broke up with me because I was "too nice," without the girl who was sweet and caring and as smart as a box of hammers, would I be able to appreciate just how amazing my wife really is? Doubtful, and so I'm glad for the experiences, both good and bad. If you feel the same way, give Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a try. It's a hard movie to classify - not feel good, not hilarious, not worldview shattering - but it's thoughtful and charming and a bit left of center; and as far as movies (and relationships) go, who could ask for anything more?
 Evicted!
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- Most of the tricks used to simulate Joel’s memories getting burned away are computer-generated, but in Barnes & Noble it looks like they just turned the books around so you couldn’t see the spines, only the pages. Still, it’s a pretty cool and creepy visual!
- The opening credits appear almost 20 minutes into the film, at the end of the first reel.
- The scene where Joel and Clementine watch the circus go through the streets was made up on the spot, as the film crew and cast happened to be working nearby and Michel Gondry decided it could work well in the film. The part where Clementine disappears suddenly is one of Gondry's favorite moments of the film, as Carrey didn't know Winslet was going to disappear and Gondry likes it because Carrey's face appears so saddened. When the sound blanks out in the final film Carrey is actually saying "Kate?"
- Kate Winslet does the best American accent I've ever heard from an English actress. Damn, she is good.
Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?
Well, they’re pretty short, so you don’t need to hurry to eject the DVD or anything. If you’ve always wanted to wait through end credits, this is the movie to do it with, since they’re so short.
Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]
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The idea was brought to Michel Gondry by his friend the artist Pierre Bismuth who suggested, "You get a card in the mail that says: someone you know has just erased you from their memory..."
The title is quoted from the poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope (1688-1744). This poem was used in Charlie Kaufman's earlier project Being John Malkovich.
Before Jim Carrey expressed interest in playing Joel, Nicolas Cage was considered for the role.
*SPOILERS! BEWARE!* The original script featured a cut beginning and ending sequence that took place in the future. In the end, an older Clementine comes in to have the procedure done and a look at her screen shows that she's had the procedure done multiple times and all of them involved Joel. At the very end of the script, an older Joel calls Clementine to ask why she hasn't called, but the technicians performing the procedure erase his message. Other cuts in the original script include a montage of memories people wanted erased, including a soldier seeing his dead friend on a battlefield and a girl who was raped at a young age.
The memory-erasing company, Lacuna Inc., takes its name from the Latin word meaning a cavity, hollow, or dip, especially a pool or pond. Transfiguratively, lacuna comes to mean a gap, deficiency, or loss.
A sub plot involving Joel having a one night stand with his ex-girlfriend Naomi (Ellen Pompeo) was deleted from the final film.
In the original screenplay Charlie Kaufman included a short conversation between Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) about the album "Rain Dogs" by Tom Waits during one of the opening scenes on the train. During this conversation Joel says he remembers buying the album and liking it, but he can't remember anything about it. While the dialogue was stripped from the film, during the fast shots of Stan (Mark Ruffalo) showing Joel the items he has brought in that remind him of Clementine a copy of the CD "Rain Dogs" can be seen for just a moment. Also the "blue ruin" reference comes from a lyric on the same album.
Groovy Quotes
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Joel: Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.
Joel: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Howard: Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.
Clementine: You know me, I'm impulsive.
Joel: That's what I love about you.
Joel: Sand is overrated. It's just tiny, little rocks.
Joel: [narration as Clementine acknowledges him by raising her coffee mug] Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?
Clementine: Joel, I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a f**ked up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours.
Joel: I remember that speech really well.
Clementine: I had you pegged, didn't I?
Joel: You had the whole human race pegged.
Clementine: Probably.
Joel: I still thought you were going to save me. Even after that.
[Clementine and Joel have broken into an empty house on the Montauk beach]
Joel: I think we should go.
Clementine: No, it's our house! Just tonight...
[she looks at an envelope on the counter]
Clementine: ...we're David and Ruth Laskin. Which one do you want to be? I'd like to be Ruth, but I can be flexible.
Joel: I could die right now, Clem. I'm just... happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be.
Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.
Joel: I don't see anything I don't like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will, and I'll get bored with you and feel trapped, because that's what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Soundtrack Review
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Nice, I guess. I’m so spoiled by the Garden State soundtrack it’s not even funny. The soundtracks to The OC are the bee’s knees, as well. This one isn’t bad. You’ll be so caught up in the onscreen fun and madness, I’d be surprised if you noticed the songs. They’re passable, though, so that’s good.
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This review page was last updated on 1.21.08
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