I'll Explain the Movie

Rating: Null/10 (12 April 2004)

SPOILER, ALL THE WAY THROUGH******* It scares me that people are so inured to the straight line narrative that they cannot understand a story told differently. So let me explain-- and this is meant for those who have seen the movie and just do not understand it. The first scene you see (winter beach in Montauk), and the close-to-last scene (getting out of bed, going to the train, deciding to go out to Montauk beach), are what is happening "now." The rest of the movie explains how Joel and Clementine got to the beach and what happened between their first meeting at a party on the beach in summer, and their subsequent first meeting on the beach in winter after memory erasure.
So what did happen? They met each other on the beach at a summer party, loved each other, and finally she got bored and he grew tired of her "charming" ways. Clementine went to Lacuna to have her memory of Joel erased. Then Joel followed suit. However,the technician, Stan, and the girl from the office, Mary, get stoned and drunk while doing Joel's memory erasure and screw it up. During the erasure, we see each memory of the relationship as it happens, and as it is being erased from the memory. At times Joel is partially aware of the erasure process taking place. This half-in, half-out state is what enables Joel to see what is taking place, and at times he is watching himself in the memories, and at other times, he is watching himself and the technicians as they attempt to erase his memory. (What may confuse you is that sometimes he is in the present watching the Lacuna techs erase the memories, and other times, he is in memories as they are being erased. Other times the movie is NOT in Joel's head, but is in the room with Stan and Mary, etc.)
While experiencing the memory erasure, Joel realizes how much he really loves Clementine. Joel decides that he does not want to erase all memory of Clementine, and so he tries to hide a memory of her in several places where he thinks it will be safe from the memory erasure process -- first, in an embarrassing childhood scene, and then in a scene of humiliation, and finally in a scene of shame.
In one memory, Clementine is able to tell Joel to meet her in Montauk-- and somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he still remembers this, and instead of going to work the morning after the mind erasure, he takes the train to Montauk, where he once again meets Clementine on the beach. Their relationship starts fresh and new. They both realize what has happened with the memory erasure when Mary, from Lacuna, in a move toward ethicality, mails all of the clients their files with the audio tapes they made in their initial visits to Lacuna.
To complicate the mess further, Patrick, the other Lacuna tech, decides he is "in love" with Clementine -- while she is knocked out in the memory erasure process. He steals the bag of items that Joel brought to the office-- all the love notes, journal entries, sketches, etc., that he has done for and about Clementine. Patrick uses these items to cause Clementine to like him, quoting Joel's words. However, Clementine senses that something is wrong - because Patrick is using Joel's exact words, this spurs memories of Joel to return to Clementine's mind.
And what is it that most interferes with Joel's memory erasure, aside from the sloppy work of the two techs? It is that Patrick is talking about his obsession with Clementine during the initial phases of the Joel's memory erasure--while they are still connecting the wires-- and this causes Joel to have new memories and understanding that Patrick is involved with Clementine. The Lacuna process is not so foolproof-- the company even needs to send out notices telling friends not to mention the person who was "erased."
ALL IN ALL, this movie is beautifully shot, beautifully edited, has wonderful sound and music, wonderful sound editing, a wonderful script, fantastic acting, even superb lighting. The movie is touching, and deep, and hilarious at times. This is a movie that says that love is never perfect, and we need to take love with its faults, if we want to have love. MY thanks to Kaufman, Gondry, and all, for giving me this incredibly special couple of hours spent in movie magic.