This film is a romance.
But not in the common sense.
It is a romance in that deep, painful way that causes you to be unable to leave bed for a couple of days because that is how much it impacts your life.
The care that went into this film is unmatched.
This is shown through Charlie Kaufman’s writing which is arguably matched to this day and Michel Gondry’s unspeakably beautiful directing.
Our leads are Joel Barish and Clementine Krucynski played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winlet respectively.
I truly do not want to spoil the film as it is a masterpiece of its own right and I truly believe that it is a film that should be experienced by anyone who deems themself apart of the human race.
The film is not just a film, it is almost an experience of the range of human emotions that a person can have during falling in and out of love.
As well as the recognition that you can never fully fall out of love so forcing yourself to forget may just be easier.
But the question that this raises is: if we forget do we ever grow?
Or are we just cursed to remake the same mistakes over and over again continuously forgetting that we ever made those mistakes in the first place.
The film is respectful of the fact that love is multifaceted.
It is beautiful and messy and sometimes not just worth it.
But the film ends on the meaning that real love is worth trying not just forgetting and moving on to the next person but trying again and again because you acknowledge that, that person is worth everything and anything.
I think society sees love so black and white.
You’re either in love or you're out of it.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind deeply reflects on the grey area of love; the area so many are so desperate to escape from.
This grey area haunts both Joel and Clementine in the film and Clementine erasing Joel from her mind cemented how the only way too truly leave the grey area is to forget entirely.
But if you forget how do you know you will not make the same “mistake” over and over again.
The film has a star studded cast, as aforementioned Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are the stars.
But, it also has Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo all making up the supporting cast around the two protagonists.
I appreciate how the side characters are more than one dimensional.
They have their own dilemmas and problems and hopes and dreams.
They are not just there to move a plot line they are to emphasise the message behind the film that I have mentioned.
You can never grow as a person if you just forget the hard parts.
Within the film Kirsten Dunst’s character Mary Svevo quotes a segment of a poem by Alexander Pope: “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!/ The world forgetting, by the world forgot/ Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!/ Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d”
