SPOILERS! You've been warned.
Rated 14a
Last seen: February 2005
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson
Directed by: Michel Gondry
DIRECTORIAL GENIUS
CHARACTERS
Joel Barrish - Wakes up on Valentine's Day feeling depressed. Spends most of the movie confined to a bed remembering stuff.
Clementine Kruczynski - The movie begins with them meeting. She likes to dye her hair pretty colors.
Patrick & Stan - Two guys zapping Joel's memory. Patrick is now with Clementine and Stan is in love with Mary.
Mary Svevo - Works for the zapping place. Is in love with Dr. Mierzwiak.
Dr. Merzwiak - the doctor of the clinic.
Carrie & Rob - Joel's friends.
PLOT
The movie begins with Joel waking up, kind of out of it and depressed on Valentine's Day. He is even more upset when he sees that somebody has made a dent in his car. He takes the train to work, but today has decided to skip work. He takes the train to Montahauk and on it, he meets Clementine. Clementine is noticeable because of her blue hair. It's very vivid. They begin talking and a relationship forms over the next few days. While Joel is outside her house waiting for her about a week later, Patrick comes up to his car and asks him if he can help him with anything. It's all very strange.
This is when the beginning credits happen, with Joel crying in his car. This is the end of their relationship. Over the next little while, Joel trys to see Clementine at her work to apoligize, but she acts like she doesn't know him at all and she's with another man. Joel is very puzzled about this. He discusses it with his friends, Carrie and Rob. Rob lets it slip that Clementine had Joel erased from her memory at a company that erases memories, Lacuna. Upset and angered by this new revelation, Joel decides to go and visit Lacuna himself. There, he mets Dr. Mierzwiak and they begin the brain erasing process. First, Joel must collect every possession that he has that is in some way associated with Clementine. After, he goes home and takes a sleeping pill which knocks him out and allows Stan and Patrick to start the erasing process. The first memory that they erase from Joel is the last time he saw Clementine. Clementine stumbles home drunk and Joel accuses her of cheating on him. This angers Clementine and they break up. The process goes further to reveal other bad memories, such as when him and Clementine started arguing about having children, or when they were in a Chinese restaurant arguing.
Patrick asks Stan if he can leave early. When questioned about this, Patrick reveals that he fell in love with Clementine while they were erasing her memory of Joel. He is now using everything that Joel gave Clementine to seduce her. Stan invites Mary over and they begin a small party.
At this time, in Joel's brain, he is starting to regret the erasing process because all of his good memories of Clementine are being erased. Clementine says to him (in his head) that he should try and remember her in another memory, one that isn't on the map of erasing. Joel remembers back to when he was a child. This makes him move off the map. Flabbergasted by this, Stan calls Dr. Mierzwiak for help. Dr. Mierzwiak helps and he and Mary begin talking. Mary reveals to him that she's in love with him and they begin kissing. Dr. Mierzwiak's wife pulls up and sees this and tells Mary that she and Dr. Mierzwiak had an affair before and that Mary had her memory erased of it. Mary rushes back to Lacuna and finds her file.
Back in Joel's head, Clementine convinces him to go off the map again by remembering shame. Some funny instances follow. Dr. Mierzwiak manages to get him back on the map again and the erasing process goes along like it's supposed to. The last memory that they erase is the memory of when Joel met Clementine. But wait! It's not the same as what I described at the beginning. The reasons, I'll get to in a minute. The first time Joel and Clementine met was on a beach. She had green hair and they spent the whole day together. Later on in the evening, he and Clementine break into an unoccupied house on the beach front. In the memory, Joel went away. But Clementine asks him, "What if this time, you stayed?" Joel can't of course and right before he's whipped out of the memory, Clementine says:"Meet me in Montahauk."
The present Clementine is creeped out (and rightfully so) by Patrick and dumps him. This is when the movie goes back to the very beginning and him and Clementine meet again.
On the way back to his place, Clementine puts in a tape she received from Mary Svevo of having her memory erased. Joel thinks that this is a cruel joke and kicks her out of his car. When he arrives home, he finds that he also has a tape. Clementine goes back to him and they start another relationship.
FAVORITE SCENE
Clementine and Joel sitting in the train.
Back
