The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind has changed the trajectory of my life. Starring Jim Carrey & Kate Winslet, which premiered in 2004, takes the viewers on a journey focusing on Clementine and Joel’s story. First-time watchers might be confused at the start of the movie where they place us in Joel’s house & him waking up to start his day and instead of going to work that day you see him make an impulsive decision to call into work and take the train to Montauk. The movie is set in NYC/Long Island NY, where I grew up. Already the movie has drawn me in and established me as a viewer with a sense of relatability.
About 20 minutes into the movie we find out that Clementine(Clem) had erased Joel from her memory completely and in retaliation he finds the place where she got the procedure done and also gets his memories of her wiped. This procedure involves the person getting their mind wiped to be asleep and the employees of the establishment are allowed into your home to put on the only way I can put it is, a head contraption; and then pinpoint the memories of the very thing you want to erase. The movie takes you through the process of each part of their relationship, and as the movie progresses you get a better understanding of where things went wrong after each scene Clem’s voice gets muffled or the background of wherever they were gets blurry or crumbles.
Throughout the movie, Clem becomes almost an entirely different, more patient version of herself & becomes a character of reason and tries to help Joel wake up when he ultimately decides he wants to keep his memories of Clem and that’s the turning point of the movie. They are then both running away from “the bad guys” which are the people trying to erase his memory, she suggests that he hides her in his humiliation which can be a metaphor for Joel becoming more vulnerable with Clem and that he didn’t get to do when they were together and at first he touches surface level embarrassing by getting caught masturbating, but Clem suggests to go deeper where you then placed in Joel’s childhood where other boys are surrounding him getting him to kill an injured bird. It’s very clear he feels uncomfortable doing it but as a child you are likely to be pressured more quickly & Clem, as a child comes into the scene with authority and saves Joel from experiencing this trauma again.
Ultimately this moving ends with them getting back their memory of each other and the reason why I love this movie so much is the very end scene where Joel is chasing after Clem and she tries to push him away telling him, she gets bored easily and that this is bound to end up a disaster again and Joel so calmly and stern replies with a simple “Okay.” which to me I see this as a true act of love; Joel being so accepting of Clem and knowing she’s tried to erase him from her mind he knows he isn’t much better & that maybe in this next run, they have a chance to be better.