great thought experiment

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2004)

What if you could erase someone from your awareness? All your memories of them would be gone...or would it be just the image of the person missing from the memories, with the space and time and various props still in your recollection? That is one huge what-if, and making a movie around that elusive concept is quite a feat. While there were moments I felt uncomfortable and even bored (once I actually figured out what was going on, that is), I still give the writer and director major credit for presenting us with this concept.
Here's another thought: If you could completely forget a person you had dated for two years, then you met them on the street, would you be drawn to them for all the same reasons you had been in the first relationship? How many times could two people meet each other for the first time, and find themselves attracted? Infinitely? Or, as the movie hints, perhaps there is a small part of you that never forgets, or something about a person and a relationship that cannot be erased. Call it a theme, an essence, an aroma.
Finally, I think one moral of this story is "'tis better to have loved, and lost, than never to have loved at all." At the end of the movie, Joel is vigorously willing to go through any and all pain and heartache that may result eventually, if it means he can enjoy the sweetness of being with Clementine for now, in all her exciting, seriously *&%@ed-up splendor.