I first watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in theatres upon it’s original release. Despite it doing okay theatrically we went to a sparsely attended showing which had an eerily quiet audience to take this film in. Afterword those who left still maintained a stunned quietness as no one was discussing the movie but rather seemed to process it for some time. Now I cannot speak for the others for sure, but this was certainly my reaction along with my other friends in attendance. Eventually we would get down to discussion, analysis, theory and everything about the movie, but for an undefined period it was mostly silence. I really enjoyed that viewing considering the movie one of the more original sci-fi movies I had seen in recent memory. In the ensuing years after my then girlfriend (now wife, who was in attendance when we watched in theatre) and I decided to make this movie an annual Valentine’s Day tradition and held that for about 7-9 years or so with 2012ish being the last year I had watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind… That is until this past Valentine’s Day and I have to say upon seeing it for the first time in almost 15 years, I love this movie more now then ever. It hits every beat for me and it hits hard, why may be a little more difficult to nail down, but I will try, fair warning from this point forward there will be spoilers… if you can spoil a 21 year old movie that is.
The story is told in a non-linear fashion that manages to be simple enough to follow while complicated enough that you should spend some time guessing what is happening but eventually figure it out as you go. It is an impressive bit of film-making how the story unfolds starting towards the end as Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) meet but something feels off, then rewinding a bit showing Joel and Clementine having a fight resulting in Clementine using a service that “erases” a person from their life, or more accurately their memory of that person. Joel eventually decides to reciprocate and then the movie really takes off as the procedure involves invoking memories during sleep. Joel ends up lucid in his dream memories and realizes he made a mistake and tries in vain to stop the procedure. The effects of Joel’s memories disappearing are done in a more minimalistic style which really adds to the effectiveness and feeling of loss in scenes like at a transit station where people just blink out one after the other, or a house crumbles as the memory fades. Backgrounds get foggy or dark and it all has a very chilling and unsettling effect mainly due to one decision: This is a lucid dream. Joel is feeling all of this happens so when he begs for the memory erasers to just let him keep this one happy memory it is sad and beautiful and hits hard emotionally. When he is reflecting on his big mistakes in the relationship I personally cannot help but to look back and reflect on mine as well. Scenes flow from one to the next because each scene tells a part of the story, and is crafted to move the story forward. Inside the dream we learn about Joel and Clementine’s relationship, while outside the Lacuna characters (Howard, Stan, Patrick and Mary) erasing Joel’s memory of Clementine set us up to pick up where the movie begins. Quick synopsis but Howard is the doctor behind the memory erasing technique, Stan is one of his techs and his friend Patrick is also a tech… I think, Mary is Stan’s girlfriend and admin
assistant for the company. I have glossed over them because I want to feature them in a discussion later, but it is eventually revealed when Mary attempts to kiss Howard that she had done this in the past but had that memory erased. She is upset by this and eventually mails out to all clients what Lacuna has done. This sets up the ending of Joel and Clementine finding out what they did and eventually still giving their relationship another try despite the knowledge they failed last time, which for me is a near perfect ending highlighted by them on a snowy beach together.
Themes – Identity, Isolation, Longing, Destiny and Redemption are all themes I gravitated toward while watching this. Now matter how bad things could have went with a relationship I would never erase it, because all of the things I have done wrong, all the mistakes I have made and learned from have made me a better person. Early relationships I came on too strong and if I didn’t learn from that I would probably not have my current one. Joel learns this lesson too late once the dream goes lucid but that leads to this movie beautifully illustrating the importance of learning from your mistakes and does so in a more subtle manner without shouting it at the camera. Longing and Isolation go hand in hand. Joel and Clementine are isolated and longing for connection, they just have bad communication which leads to the end of their first relationship together. Howard isolates himself from his work by necessity to carry it out. Patrick is… the worst I am taking a pass on him until the ethical paragraph next. Mary has a longing as well and once she realizes her mistake she aims for redemption. Which brings me to Destiny or Fate. Once Joel and Clementine realize fully what happens, once they hear the tapes of all the things they hate about each other, they realize that the relationship has spectacularly failed, once all this happens they still decide to give each other and themselves another chance, because people can change provided they can learn from their mistakes. Destiny/Fate is not a thing when it comes to relationships. We all make choices, we all make mistakes and if we can learn from those choices and mistakes we can do better, be better and maybe things will work out better next time. In the end this is what got me the most watching this. When they decided to go for it everything clicked together and I was so, so happy.
Ethics – Upon first viewing I did not consider the ethical implications of the memory erasing Dream Machine but this time I found them front and center big time. First off, I would never judge anyone who would want to use this procedure, I cannot pretend to understand another’s pain and how they deal with it and if they feel the need to erase that memory/memories I am not one to argue. Upon this viewing starting with Howard, he is cold, unfeeling and very matter of fact when dealing with clients, particularly Joel. I suppose a big part of this is necessary for the work he is doing but the implications I thought of during and after this movie is horrifying. A caring and attentive doctor would spend more time finding out about clients and why they are doing what they are doing. How many of his clients may have regretted their decisions like Joel during the process, or after if they could remember? What about someone erasing an abusive relationship? An abuser who found out about this could use the information to get back into the life of their victims and up the abuse level, not unlike Patrick does with Clementine in the movie. In fact staying with Patrick for a second, he is pretty much the symbol of most everything unethical about Lacuna. He uses personal and confidential information to manipulate Clementine to the point of emotional abuse (which leans into my point earlier about abusive relationships), stealing Joel’s liqour is insignificant compared to everything else he gets on with, like I said earlier: the worst. Clients cannot have remorse or ‘return’ this product because at the end of it they do not even remember getting the procedure. Mary in particular is a good example of this as she finds out she had made advances with Howard once (at least once) already and when she listens to her interview tape it is clear Howard (her boss) is coercing her into getting the procedure knowing that she will not be able to regret it later (from a place of power no less). Even little things like Stan and Patrick drinking the liquor at Joel’s (and they also hint at doing this at other client’s homes) knowing he won’t know they were there shows how little thought is given to people who undergo this procedure. And really I am just scratching the surface, there can be many other things I have not thought of yet.
Bringing this all back home to a conclusion. I am so happy I decided to watch this again. I was enraptured despite knowing most of what was going to happen. I laughed, cried, cried a bit more and felt a pang of hope at the end. Everything lined up just right for this rewatch and I cannot overstate how much I enjoy this movie. It is somewhat rare that a movie moves me to the point of actual introspection and rarer still when it goes this deep. I don’t believe in destiny or fate but rather am a practitioner of Luck, I wanted to write that watching this again on Valentine’s day was Kismet, but luckily I looked up the definition, but it was definitely an experience either way. A happy moment that I hope to hold on to for as long as my memory will allow.