sophiaserpentia | (no subject) (Reply)

akaiyume and I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This is a fantastic, magical movie.

Essentially this movie is a character study of two people, Joel and Clementine, and an event-by-event examination of their relationship. This character study takes place against the backdrop of an improbable medical procedure that allows memories to be selectively called up and then eliminated, making it possible to entirely forget that you ever knew a person.

We see the story from Joel's point of view. He is having the procedure done to retaliate against Clementine, who, "on a lark," left him and had the procedure herself a week before. Because the memories are played in a way that seems random, but is mostly backwards, it is only possible to piece together the whole story as the movie progresses. From the first memories we see, Clementine comes across as a drunk veering dangerously close to psychosis. So at first we are inclined to sympathize with Joel... but he is not exactly a saint; he uses his tolerance of her drinking as an excuse to feel withdrawn and superior.

As the memories progress, though, you begin to see that there was a strong and beautiful tie between them; and that perhaps only a mis-step, a single spoken insult from Joel, caused their relationship to careen into disaster.

There are strong hints at supernatural forces at play -- a link so strong between Joel and Clementine that despite the odds they find a way to arrange... ah, it's hard to describe what is truly magical about this movie without giving away TOO much. Suffice it to say, that there is a strong message being made here that the mind and the spirit are much more than the brain.