Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a unique modern love story. In this film two individuals with opposite personalities fall in love. Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) a man, who enjoys consistency in life, is reunited with his girlfriend Clementine, (Kate Winslet) an outgoing individual who enjoys taking risk. They don't realize it now, but two years ago they were former lovers, until their memories of one another were eternally erased. Clementine was the first to consent to erasing Joel from her memory. Joel was devastated by the news and decided that he to would undergo the procedure. Most of the movie is taken place inside of Joel’s mind. During the procedure Joel realizes that he still has feelings for Clementine, he tries to keep his memories of Clementine from deteriorating. Though his attempts only slow down the erasing of Clementine from his memory. When a patient would give their consent, they would undergo a series of procedures. The first step, the individual would remove all physical objects from their house that had correlation with the memory they were trying to get rid of. At the comfort of their own house, they would take a pill causing them to fall into a deep sleep. The doctor who performed the operation would place the patient under a device; this would allow the doctor to focus on erasing a certain portion of their memory. This film evoked the idea it was possible to erase bad memories. On the surface this sounds ideal, a fresh start. However, you are sacrificing your good memories when you chose to eliminate the bad memories. I would be against the removal of memories. Your mind would have no reconciliation of previous mistake you made; this would only cause your subconscious mind to repeat the past.

            The cast did a superb job portraying their characters. It was interesting how the director starred Jim Carrey in this movie. Usually Jim Carrey is casted in movies for his silliness, however this movie he undertook a serious acting role. By doing this I believe the audience is drawn more to his character. Kate Winslet protracted a sillier character (Clementine) though her acting wasn’t over the top, making the film to overdramatic. The character’s costumes were also carefully selected to represent their personalities. Joel often wore sweatshirts and beanies throughout the film. This is symbolic with his character for sweatshirts, and beanies stereotypically represent a person who is laid back. Having Jim Carrey hair just above his eyes made Joel look like a kindhearted individual. Clementine expressed her outgoing personality through her bright clothing; an orange sweatshirt, blue shirt, a pink jacket are a few examples of Clementine's clothing. It was brilliant how the film correlated Clementine’s hair color with the emotional presents Joel was experiencing when his memories were being erased. The first time Clementine hair is blue, that scene of the movie Joel is reliving falling in love with Clementine. The color blue symbolizes: trust, loyalty and confidence. When Joel was resisting the memory of Clementine from being erased from his brain, Clementine hair was red. Red is often associated with determination, desire, and love. The final scene of the movie where Joel accepts the reality of Clementine being erased from his memory, Clementine hair is dyed green. The color green means life, nature, and harmony. Hope is created in this scene from Clementine's last words, meet me in Montauk.