Take a good look and check out the multiple meanings

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 2005)

To be accurate I have seen this movie in entirety twice, but parts of it over and over.... many of these scenes have been noted as favorites etc...including the doll scene "intimacy revealed"...the Meet me in Mantauk scene.."profound understanding" (if you concede that Clementine must have experienced a similar 'calling' in her erasure experience...I found this sentence profoundly revealing.
Also the Alexander Pope quotation stated by Mary, not realizing that she is what she is speaking the "Vestle / Vessel" untainted by the real world but living in ignorance. The vessel is revealed to be the self-judger.
I watched this with a friend of mine who was experiencing post bad-break up trauma. It is shocking to realize that the person that you hate, can also be the person most responsible for a lasting change in perspective.
The erasure for me was like experiencing a death. The doctor stated that once the original memory is erased the additional memories will fade after. Maybe this is the meaning of the final ride home with Joel's friends, when he says "She was just some girl". I cried because this is not merely an extermination of memories but an extermination of self. The ultimate cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Of course I can understand why some found it difficult. It requires some revisiting but the effort is worthwhile if you are interested. I still found myself unclear in particular when J. appears to visit C. at work stocking shelves. He speaks as if they are real but they clearly are not since he talks of a second go at the relationship. I am assuming that the start of the scene is immediately after the initial meeting at the beach house (when Joel ran away).
Sometimes, of course, to understand you must experience and if there are any of you who knew someone was bad for you but you still went back again because of some intangible attraction you will know what I mean.
I more than loved this movie, I left this movie thinking differently about my life. I thought to myself if I had to guess where someone I loved was right at this moment would I be able to be correct with any certainty? Okay I am a romantic at heart so you will want to temper this endorsement with some reality. If you don't get it then you haven't been swept away by unknown forces.
Cheers