Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(2004)- User Reviews

With over 45,000 posted Yahoo reviews, one can clearly see that this film struck a deep chord with people. Nearly all of us fall in love, are later left behind, and have nothing but memories to forge onward. Love brings ecstasy at first, then leaves us vulnerable to the deepest of pains. While one can relish one's memories and live within them (not considered a healthy choice), one can also try to forget them. This film projects the possibility of a procedure that makes this happen without effort--which seems like the perfect choice for the movie's star crossed lovers. We viewers experience the space between joy and despair as we watch the events unfold. As for what PRECISELY is taking place and in what sequence defies being fully grasped in just one viewing. If you've yet to see it, I advise you to stop reading this review now. My take is this: look to Clementine's hair color to establish the time line. First, her hair is green. Then it is tangerine. And finally, it is blue. But then her hair is also a reddish tangerine in the several sequences which happen only in the minds of our lovers as they desperately endeavor, post memory removal, to lead each other back to those memories in order to refind their love and renew their relationship. The other clue is that Clementine goes to the frozen Charles river THREE times, with the sequences being out of synch between 'film time' and 'real time.' In the latter its if 1-with Joel, her hair orange, 2-once again with orange hair, with the creep who steals Joel's memories, and 3-with Joel in their new relationship, her hair now blue. Also to clarify, they meet for the first time in Montauk at the beach amongst many friends. The second time they meet in Montauk, each alone, in a snowy February. The peformances by Jim Carey and Kate Winslet are so engaging and tender, that one cannot but help live through them and root for them. It is we, the viewers, desperately trying to recreate our pasts, and making those crucial adjustments that would have kept our past great loves alive--while in our reality we know that we must live rather with the lonely results of the errors each in that former love bond inevitably made. At film's end, two things stood out for me: Joel's commemt too Clemtine's statement of what to do as they feel each other falling in love: "Enjoy." And the image of Joel and Clementine lying on the ice of the Charles staring at the night sky in the ecstasy of newfound love, Joel expressing his surprise and joy at the incredibly perfect moment they are mutually experience. Those things, it seems to me, are why despite the pain, we will strive for love our whole life long.