Movie day

WARNING: do NOT read if you have not watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Yes, it contains spoilers. Yes, it contains my thoughts on the film. No, you won't get most of it if you haven't watched the film. So even if you don't intend to watch it, probably reading this is pointless.

Today I was supposed to get some work done. Instead, I've been in bed all day, ordered pizza, watched quite a bit of Masterchef (US, second season), the first episode of the new True Blood series (it's the last one right?) and when that was done I decided I wanted to watch a movie.

The idea was to watch a romcom, but then I came across Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Let me tell you my history with the movie first. I hate Jim Carrey. Really hate him. And when I first went to watch this movie, Kate Winslet wasn't as big as she is now. And yet, when we got to the cinema (I was with my mum and dad, must have been around 13 at the time?) either nothing else was showing, or what we'd decided to watch wasn't on at the hour advertised, or my parents had already decided to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind without telling me. Long story short: I wasn't really keen, but we went in anyway. I haven't watched it since until today but it has been since that day one of my favourite films.

And yes, I love this film. It gets a bit long at times, rambling through the memories in Joel's mind. It's not perfect. But for all the little things it gets wrong, it gets almost everything right. The first scenes, from Joel waking up to him getting on the train to Clementine saying she'll get a toothbrush are perfect. Yes, he is a bit of a loser, and clearly he is sad. Yes, she is aggressive, and a bit strange. But we all have days like that. Days when we feel like shit and skive off work. Days when a person catches our eye and we can't help but say hello. Days when we come on a bit too hard.

I don't know, but I suspect that Joel and Clementine are both archetypes. She is the wild, unpredictable dreamer, the woman in her late twenties or early thirties who refuses to have what others might consider a stable job or lead a "normal" life, but whom others see as a bit of a waste, because in the end she's not really fighting the system: she does have a job she hates and she needs to pay the rent like the rest of us and drinks a little bit too much at times. But at least she is alive. And at times that makes her happy, even if she does (and she admits it) get bored.

Joel is the "safe" one. He is socially awkward (but not in an "I don't have friends and don't know how to talk to people" way, but in a "Certain social situations engineered to make us talk to each other are just weird and I don't know what to do with them" way, which I suspect most of us can relate to once in a while). He does his job. He is (at his own admission) not spontaneous, and he's worried about breaking the rules. And he also wants to be happy. Clementine makes him happy because she's carefree and breaks the rules and lets him have fun, but it goes against his beliefs that someone like that can also be a responsible partner, so he has trouble having a relationship with her. Because deep down, he doesn't trust her. He doesn't see her as a long term thing.

Part of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about breaking these archetypes. It is about showing that people are not a mold, they're not what they're supposed to be. That people who are sweet can also be hurtful and mean; that people who are wild and crazy can also be incredibly loyal (this might be just my interpretation of Clementine saying at the end "I wouldn't do that. I am not like that". Joel has a preconception of how she will act based on the idea he has formed of her as a carefree wild spirit, and it turns out that he is wrong. She might be wild and crazy and carefree, but she means it when she says "if you're with me you're with me").

Another (to me huge) part of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the science fiction. Because let's face it, this is a science fiction film. There aren't machines out there that erase your memories. The consequences of deleting memories are not a known variable. So Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a science fiction movie. And to me, that makes it even better. It shows what matters in science fiction. I have met a lot of people who maintain that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind isn't science fiction, that the deleting is only a construct helping the film. To me, this is the best kind of science fiction. The kind that does not use sci-fi as a setting, but as a medium to explore possibilities, a medium to tell a story. The best kind of science fiction is the sort that is necessary to the story, so necessary that it is believable, so necessary that people will argue "it's not science fiction, it is just a way to tell the story". A strictly realistic author would not have been able to tell the story at all. A truly realistic author would not have had as much fun with the van, and the machines around Joel's bed, but most of all, a strictly realistic author could not have told the story, because so much of it hinges on memories being erased and how that affects people and how discovering that it is happening or has happened affects people.

The Mary back story I always found weak. But it is brilliant in itself. It is one of perhaps three parts played by Kirsten Dunst that I admire profoundly and make me think she is actually a fantastic actress with an unforgivable preference for bad scripts. I don't like it because the part is clearly a ploy so that Joel and Clementine can have their tapes back. I do not find the romance between her and Stan believable at all. And I also have trouble believing that Howard would let her keep her job and keep seeing him every day after she had him removed. I think that part of the plot is weak, but no less well executed (when Howard's wife turns up, now that is powerful) in parts.

I read recently how Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a metaphor for how people fall in love and deal with break ups and a criticism as to scientific manipulation of the mind (the message seems to be, if you invested so much in someone then you won't actually be able to forget them). But to me the last conversation in the film sums it up quite well. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about how when we fall in love, we almost forget that we've been hurt before, and most of us, most of the time, will risk being hurt again.

Anyways, time for another film. Doubt it will be as good, but at least it won't be a rewatch (nothing wrong with rewatches but I've been doing a lot of that lately). If you have any suggestions as to movies in the spirit of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, please comment below. I'd love to watch more.