Don't erase my memory

Rating: 1/10 (15 August 2007)

Don't erase my memory. I want to remember this film so that I can remember to never see a film by Michel Gondry again. If it wasn't for the fact that this film was forced upon me on two occasions, I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole. It is basically a story of a shy recluse called Joel (Jim Carrey) who meets lively and eccentric Clementine (Kate Winslet). They fall in love but their relationship is turbulent due to their contrasting personalities. Finally, an accident involving Clementine and Joel's car ends the relationship and Clem goes to have her memory of their relationship erased. She says during the interview before the erasure that she wants to erase Joel because 'he's boring'. In an act of spiteful revenge, Joel decides to erase Clementine as well. It is during the erasure process that he finds out that he actually wants to keep his memories as there were some moments of the relationship which he treasured. In his mind, he contrives a agreeable Clementine who is eager to help him preserve the memory of them as a couple, which is very ironic as Clementine erased him first.
The main part of the story concerns the ways in which Joel and his made-up Clementine try to preserve Joel's memory of the relationship. This is supposed to be a romantic comedy with touches of noir and sci-fi but where is the comedy? More importantly, where is the romance? There are very few laughs to be gotten out of this film and the characters seem more interested in sex than true love. All the tender moments in which they share a tete-a-tete take place during sex scenes. During the erasure, Joel once returns to his childhood self and Clem shows him her crotch to bring him back. If it was indeed true love that they had, then Joel wouldn't have been vengeful enough to erase Clem.
The characters are hard to like as they are too flawed to offer any inspiration. Joel has serious social and communication problems while Clementine is unpredictable, irresponsible and uncouth. The writer seemed to have thought that giving them swear words to say added to their personality.
The storyline is also hard to follow as it is not set in chronological order. The only time indicator is Clem's hair colour.
The main idea of the film is that memories contribute to who we are and are therefore important and should not be tampered with. It also implies that without bad memories we will never feel very happy as we will not have the bad moments to compare with the good moments. The memory of films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind and the like makes me appreciate directors such as Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg much more.