Review of the movie, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2011)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a well-directed film by Michel Gondry, starring Jim Carrey as Joel Barish, and Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczinski. Joel is a shy man who has trouble meeting new females, and Clementine is an extremely outgoing girl who always speaks her mind. Eventually, the two get together, but their relationship begins to spoil, and in an attempt to free her self from the troubled life she feels trapped in, Clementine takes part in a procedure to have all her memories of Joel erased. Once Joel discovers the procedure that Clementine has had done to her, he then decides to do the same for himself. This is the basic story of this film, but it is not necessarily shown in this order. One of the top reasons that this movie reflects postmodernism is through its non-linear structure. The audience never truly understands the order of events until the very end of the movie when the puzzle of scenes is finally put together. As soon as the movie begins, the audience gets to witness Joel and Clementine seemingly meeting each other for the first time. They keep running into each other at a beach, a diner, and a train station. Without any further information the viewers automatically assume that this is their first encounter with each other. However, as the film goes on, it is eventually realized that the scenes in the beginning that show their encounters with each other actually take place after their memories get erased. The concept is brilliant, leaving audience members to question: "Why didn't I see that coming?" Another way this film represented postmodernism was through its multiple character perspectives. The story was not just about the lives of Joel and Clementine. Kirsten Dunst plays an employee working for the business that erases these relationship memories and her character eventually realizes that she too has undergone the process of getting her memories erased. The film jumps from perspective to perspective, always explaining to the audience each character's point of view. Elijah Wood's character falls for Clementine, and in a brief little monologue by him, the audience understands why. This is an excellent film that dives deep into the lives of two totally different people together in a relationship.