Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2013)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a mind-bending love story about the pain and joys of being in a relationship. Joel Barish (Jim Carey) is devastated when he finds out that his girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) has undergone brain surgery to erase him from her memory completely. To get back at her, he undergoes this same surgery only to discover the many joys of their relationship. Through this loss he finds what he had to begin with and begins to fight for his memories of Clementine. This story is a touching tale of all the heartaches of love and that no memory is worth erasing. As the story progresses the audience is taken on a tour of Joel's memories with Clementine as they are being erased giving the audience a full picture of their relationships, including all the fights and all the good memories. Memories are morphed as Joel realizes they are being erased and he begins to control them and fight for them. All the while he is talking to Clementine, discussing the procedure and what went wrong with their relationship and how they can fix it together. This is accompanied by glances into "reality" and scenes happening after the procedure, and how Clementine and Joel react to their newly erased brains. And if they will remember each other or move on with their lives.
This story is an untraditional love story with a strong message. "You don't know what you have until its gone" and for Joel and Clementine, this is most certainly true. Both characters are strong individuals in their own right, Clementine representing a very unique, strong woman with sudden urges that change her life forever, and Joel representing a very spiteful character whom erases Clementine because she did it to him. However along the way, we find that these two are perfect for each other and they fill in each other what the other is lacking. And as the audience, we can only hope that they will find their way back together. This story comes with side stories and twists and villains to allow for extra drama, but in the end it is a true love story. Showing the true pain involved in a relationship, that relationships are not always perfect and we may sometimes want to erase them, but when we remember the good memories, we realize that they are still worth fighting for.