I recently watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Somehow, I never heard much about this movie, so I didn’t know what to expect. The brief description I read about it gave me some idea of the plot, but it didn’t prepare me for how amazing it would be. If you want to find out for yourself, skip this review and the major spoilers it contains.
The movie follows Joel and Clementine (played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, respectively) as they reconnect after erasing their memories of each other and their relationship. Most of what occurs is seen through Joel’s memories as he’s undergoing the memory erasing procedure. About halfway through, he decides he wants to stop and tries desperately to preserve his remaining memories of Clementine. After he realizes and accepts that he can’t stop the procedure, he enjoys revisiting his last few memories of Clementine and the start of their relationship. The first few scenes from the movie are then replayed, with us now knowing their story, and them having the opportunity to start over again.
A lot of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind focuses on lucid dreams, traces of forgotten memories, destiny, and second chances. Since most of the movie takes place in Joel’s mind, the filmmakers get incredibly creative. The memory erasing process starts with the most recent memories and works backwards, so we gradually learn how their relationship started off well after seeing that it ended badly. If you’ve seen Inception, then you’ll have some idea of the kinds of things that happen in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; both movies share similar concepts and visuals regarding dreams and memories. This makes it difficult to follow at times, but everything comes together beautifully by the end.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the most amazing movies I’ve ever seen and well worth checking out.