A very well thought out film

Rating: 8/10 (22 November 2019)

What is the meaning of life? Is it learning from our mistakes, tucking them away, or growing? Could it be described in a single statement? Or a well planned theory? A theory that teaches us to embrace that everything that happens in life brings us closer to who we are. Without these occurrences, without the regret, we could never be the same. The film Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind, not only touches on these topics, but chooses to explore this particular theory and its consequences. Rightfully so, I have chosen to describe this piece as a film because it touches on topics that are much greater than oneself. After watching this piece, I felt myself debating the concept of regret. If you could really erase anything from your past, would you? This film seeks out an idea that with the bad, comes the good of change. A place that can only be reached through experience, and most often times mistakes. Above its reflection upon human nature and life, I thought the film to be really well planned out. It was organized in such a way to manipulate the viewer into believing various timelines, which I found to be a very intriguing concept. The beginning of the film, is not the beginning, but a mere do over of the characters life. It is not till the end that you realize this. To keep up with these changes of the mind, the creators of the film have incorporated Clementine's hair color as a guide towards emotion, and the timing of an event. I thought this movie to be very touching. It was a heart warming love story with an indefinite end. Although the characters have only minor memories of their time together, it is promising that they would attempt a happy life together, which is all that you can really do in life. Try. As the viewer, I would like to believe that Clementine and Joel stay together after the end of the film. I feel that for Joel, the desperation of almost completely losing the love of his life will have an impact on his mind. When ever he feels unhappy with Clementine, a buried impulse could possibly kick in, reminding him to fight for her. As for the reason why Clementine and Joel remember each other in the first place, I can't say that I completely agree with this decision. Near the end of the film, Mary hands out all of the tapes and reminds the patients of what they had tried to forget, due to a rash decision that she made after experiencing mixed emotions about the things that she just recently remebered. I believe that this was not her right. Although this decision worked out for our main characters, their are many others who had lost loved ones, or just simply had good reason to want to start a new life. For most, they made the decision to clean their mind for the greater good of themselves. Mary revealing these decisions is just opening up old wounds and complicating lives. For these reasons, I do not consider Marys actions to be justifiable. Overall, with this promising review, I only rate the movie an 8 out of 10. This is because, I felt that many scenes were unnecessary. I did not feel as though the relationship between the woman receptionist (Mary), and the assistant doctor (Rob), contributed anything powerful to the story. In many of the scenes when Joel is enduring his mind warping treatment, I would have liked to see a few more scenes of Joel and Clementine, rather than a drunken date night between two secondary characters. At first, the contrast between the stress of Joel's mind and this light hearted fun appeared to be quite funny. After about the second time, it got old. Regardless, I still really enjoyed this film. I would highly recommend it, and consider watching again, this time with a much more critical eye