#69 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a heartbreaking story about finding true love and then letting it slip through your fingers. Joel and Clementine find themselves in a rut after dating for about a year. Clementine is unhappy, so she goes to a facility that erases memories. She has Joel completely wiped from her mind. Joel finds out about this, and reacts impulsively, removing Clementine from his mind as well. While Joel's memories of her are being erased, he decides he wants to hold onto his relationship with Clementine and begins to fight the process. As we see his memories of Clementine deteriorate, Joel tries to hide her in unrelated memories. This throws off the erasing for awhile, but it always jumps back on track. Right before the final memory of Clementine and Joel's relationship disappears, Clementine whispers "Meet me in Montauk." The next morning, Joel wakes up and has a spontaneous need to jump on a train to Montauk, instead of going to work. When he arrives in Montauk, Clementine is on the beach...and then on the train. They strike up a conversation and hit it off almost immediately - like they were meant to be together. Despite having their memories wiped, they find each other again. They discover that they both went to the facility to erase one another from their minds, but they decide to stick it out and give it another shot. That, to me, is what makes this story go from heartbreaking to heartwarming. True love prevails.
This movie is extremely odd, but it is also extremely interesting. It's one of those films that you have to pay attention to the entire time, or you will get lost. Once Joel's memories start blending and disappearing, it becomes one jumbled mess of the past and the present. Ultimately, the only thing you understand is that Joel and Clementine are fighting for each other. That is why it is comforting when Joel jumps on the train to Montauk. You know he's subconsciously hearing Clementine's voice to go to Montauk. They were meant to be together, and that makes the end of the film fantastic. Despite all of the forces against them, they beat the odds.
The film does lag in certain spots, but overall, the pacing fits the story. It doesn't throw in too many extra plot points either, which is good. When a story has too many characters or too many plot lines, the film loses my interest. It's annoying when you can't follow the journey the characters are going on. Even though this film has a lot going on, it is still manageable to follow.
Overall, I think the acting is phenomenal, and I would give Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4 out of 5 stars.
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