Breaking up is (really) hard to do

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2008)

Everyone at some point feels like Joel Barish.
Joel has decided to erase his girlfriend Clementine from his memory. Literally. That's only fair though, because she has already had Joel erased from hers.
Apparently, there is a medical treatment that can do that...as the doctor who pioneered the technology explains, "Technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage." If only it was that simple.
Joel and Clementine are extremely complicated thirtysomethings who because of their many flaws and quirks actually make a perfect match. Most importantly, they love each other. We learn this along with many other bizarre and fascinating details as the film traces every memory Joel has of their problematic relationship. The labyrinthine journey through his mind takes the fuzzy fantastical form of dreams: some of his memories of Clementine are nightmares, but quite a few are startlingly beautiful treasures. It is these that Joel desperately tries to salvage, but by the time he realizes how he feels it may already be too late.
Over the course of the film we also meet the entire staff of Lacuna, Inc., the four-person medical firm who is systematically destroying Joel's memory of Clementine. These are very weird people. Collectively they resemble the sort of slapstick professionalism you might witness late night at a video store. Still, as the plot (and Joel's memory) unravels, we discover that memories may be fleeting, but the past is absolute. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The careless employees of Lacuna Inc. experience this truth as their lives intersect, parallel, and collide with Joel and Clementine and one another. Their struggle through the night against Joel's memory of his love will change each of their lives forever.
What I like about movies written by Charlie Kaufman is that in an underhanded, diabolical way the film itself is always asking the audience questions. So even if you could somehow willfully change what you remember, could you ever really change how you feel? And does Fate even care about what you remember?
Paradoxically, Joel and Clementine seem perpetually destined to be together, and equally doomed to break up. To me, that is the one unanswered question that lingers long after the credits roll: "Does love overcome fate, or does fate overcome love?" In the real world there may not be an answer, but in the present reality of Joel and Clementine, I think the answer is both.
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. -- Alexander Pope, "Eloisa to Abelard"