“How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd”
–“Eloisa to Aberland”, Alexander Pope (1717)
Every hardship overcome is multiplied by the memory of its existence. When one finally believes they are free from their actions from years past, soon those moments will begin to haunt the waking brain’s mere existence. It is impossible to erase, impossible to ease, and human nature yearns to push the mortification to the very back of its grooves. The possibility of erasure can seem like a blessing: to finally find the ability to forget. Yet, somehow in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Micheal Gondry and Charlie Kaufman, this narrative is shifted.
When I first watched the film, I was under the impression that forgetting the past would be better than reliving it. If I could forget every moment of sorrow and every anxiety that plagued my mind, I’d pick to do so in a heartbeat. A mind cleared of sadness would equate to a mind full of only happiness, but that is not how human beings work. I always wondered how my life would be different if my brain could erase just a few of those echoing memories. Yet as I watched the film, I slowly began to change my mind.
The movie follows Joel Barish (Jim Carrey), a man who feels as if something is missing. There are reminders of something, or someone, he does not know. He is gravitated towards a place, Montauk, New York, and to a woman he meets on his way back. This movie’s narrative isn’t linear, and one of its most enticing aspects is this creative method of relaying the story. On the first watch, it is difficult to determine what order the story arc follows, with scenes from the beginning feeling like the end. It is like a hazy dream you’re waiting to awake from, but continue to run around, looking for a way out.
The audience watches as Joel realizes what he has done. When the people around him mention a girl named Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), a girl he doesn’t know, he soon begins to remember what he forced his mind to forget. We are transported to his journey with Lacuna Inc, a service that specializes in removing memories from people’s minds. When Joel realizes Clementine had the procedure on herself, he attempts to remove all his pain by doing the same.
Joel starts off angry, spiteful. As he travels backwards through their relationship he starts off in the middle of arguments and hate. He can’t believe the woman he loved would hurt him so deeply. As he goes further and further into his memories through the process of erasure, he begins to question if forgetting Clementine is what he truly wants to do. Joel begins to hide in his own brain, dragging Clementine into memories she doesn’t belong to, all in hopes of keeping her in his memory. He enters some of their most precious moments, like the trip they took to Montauk and the first day they met at the beach. In one scene he attempts to communicate with the outside world in any way possible, he begs the doctor doing his erasure: “Please let me keep this memory, just this one.”
Jim Carrey’s portrayal of the grief after losing a lover is extremely well done, the anger felt and the simultaneous pain brought with the memories of what once was. Many people relate to the characters presented in the film, especially since they easily portray the difference of anxious versus avoidant attachment. Joel clings to Clementine, almost overbearing due to his anxiety that she will leave. Clementine loves Joel so much that it scares her, and all she wants to do is leave to protect herself from getting hurt. Both of them believed that forgetting each other would fix their problems, but the absence of memory cannot cause the root issues to disappear.
People resonate with the character’s flaws, not realizing how easy it is to become both Joel and Clementine. I realized after watching the film that you cannot escape the reality of your life by simply forgetting. Clementine and Joel still found each other after the erasure; they met on a train on the way back from Montauk, and he began to love her once more. Humans cannot escape the reality of life without first accepting their past. In order to move forward, one has to learn from the actions that lead them to the present. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind teaches the audience that to remember is to learn, to change, and to adapt.
Even after Joel and Clementine remember each other, remember the anger and the arguments, they still choose to love one another. They confront each other and their feelings, with Joel asking for her back.
“I can’t see anything that I don’t like about you.”
“But you will! You will think of things. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.”
Joel responds simply, “Okay.”
And Clementine responds the same way, “Okay.”
As complicated as a human relationship can be, sometimes all it takes is understanding that everything is temporary. Even if love ends poorly, its existence is a testimony to the human experience. The film uses a common relationship and demonstrates why continuous growth is necessary. It provides an easily relatable scenario and makes one question if their beliefs about memory are the truth. It uses stunning visuals to captivate the viewer before teaching them an important lesson about growth.
The film not only influences thoughts, but it has made its way as an inspiration for music as well. Ariana Grande’s album Eternal Sunshine used the themes and concepts of Gondry’s film and used it as a ground point for her most recent releases. In her music video “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” she uses the mind erasure idea in reference to her own life and experiences. With the film playing such a prominent role in a global star's music, it has come back into the public eye with many of her fans discovering it for the first time only recently.
The movie has a theme so relatable to viewers that even those who only know Ariana’s version find solace in the concept it originally presented. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind creates an indistinguishable beauty from mere human experience. The cinematography shows both the love and tension between the characters, and ultimately makes sure to demonstrate that relationships aren’t linear. The movie stays relevant today, as it remains a unique inspiration for creatives globally, and has slowly begun its journey into a modern classic.