Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is my favorite of the four films selected for this project. The writing is Kaufman at his best, add the unmistakably unique and quirky directing style of Michel Gondry and you have a truly surrealistic masterpiece. The film is at once concerned with modern man and woman’s existentialist woes as well as a deep meditation on the innocence of childhood and our seeming innate desire to return to that time of awe and wonder. The film explores the notion of love – at times wholly convincing – through primarily the myth of eternal recurrence (return). However, it would not be hard to argue the presence of all other themes this course concerned itself with this semester. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, and my guess is that any attempt to unravel and straighten the narrative would result in mass hysteria (well certainly mass confusion). With that said, some explanation is needed for an insightful dialogue to take place. The stories leading male is Joel Barish – quiet, shy, introspective, responsible guy in his early thirties. Joel meets an enthusiastic, slightly neurotic, adventuresome girl his own age named Clementine Kruczynski. Seemingly classic boy meets girl – seemingly. To all appearances the two are wrong for each other, but of course, they fall in love. And in spite of all their peculiar characteristics both can be extremely compassionate at times, giving the film a wonderful sense of good nature. To make a long, winding, labyrinth of a story shorter, at some point in their relationship Joel and Clementine fall out of love and Clementine – in a fit of impulse – has Joel erased from her memory. Finding this out Joel elects to have the same procedure to erase his memory of Clementine. The procedure of erasure starts by creating a neurological map of the memory by collecting all of the items associated with the person you wish to erase. The idea of plotting-out or mapping a person’s existence within the mind is a very interesting one. It is at first terrifying to think that we only exist if we are acknowledged but others and that existence could be so easily effaced. It becomes even scarier if you consider the fleeting and fickle nature of humans and the fungible way in which we pursue romance, or what is often mistakenly called “love.” Here is where the myth of eternal recurrence first comes to mind. When Friedrick Nietzsche began to discuss his interpretation of this concept he spoke about it only briefly – most likely because of its inherently problematic implications in regards to personal responsibility. Nietzsche was not actually professing that all events in the universe will eternally recur. Instead he is only proposing that if in fact all events were to recur, it would be necessary that they recur in the exact way in which they first happened. He calls this idea terrifying and refers to it as the weight of being. If we had the knowledge that all our actions would recur eternally, would we make more conscious decisions? How would our approach to intimacy be adjusted? Would we still have murder and racism? Would wars and genocide still be waged? Perhaps these afflictions are too engrained in our nature to ever be consciously altered by knowledge of consequence. Though perhaps if we think smaller, and strive to perform acts of kindness and live life in the service of others the weight of being could be lightened.
The most substantial part of the film is spent retracing the memories Joel collected of He and Clementine’s relationship. We as the audience are privy to witness the inter-workings of Joel’s subconscious come to terms with the erasure process as we work backward through the relationship. During the beginning of the procedure Joel is unaware of what is happening and is mildly disturbed at finding himself in unfamiliar places that are constantly in a sate of change. In one scene Joel actually confronts himself in one of the memories and is able to witness his past self prior to the metamorphosis. How bizarre – we are all in a constant state of change – to be able to return to a previous state of being and confront what you once were. You have to ask whether you would attempt to change yourself? Assuming you could. But if all matter is capable of recurring, it is fated to return just as it once came.
This is addressed many times in the film. Once Joel’s subconscious discovers that the memories of Clementine are being erased he attempts to stop the process by hiding the memory of her in other places –such as early childhood. Together Joel and Clementine face challenges Joel faced in his youth. He posses the possibility to change his actions, but alas he is doomed to repeat them. Once Joel’s subconscious is aware of the changes that are taking place he attempts to preserve some of the more intimate moments. These memories of the relationship worth keeping are some of the films finest scenes. Beauty, love, death, the loneliness of childhood, innocence and happiness are all addressed during this part of the story. But as the wheels are already set in motion, try and he may to save these memories; they too are lost. Here the audience is faced with a dilemma; would they have this procedure done if it were possible? Do not all memories, good or bad constitute our every being? Here we must think of our lives as works of fiction where every fragile memory is built out of words and images. Certainly this is that myth of life as fiction and language. When Joel allowed the doctors to create a map of his brain he forfeited the rights to his own book. And just as Malone lies rotting naked in his bed holding the power to snuff out the life of his characters, the conductors of the procedure have the power to rewrite Joel’s back pages. We now come to the realization that Clementine will be erased and Joel is helpless to stop it.
The culminating event of the procedure happens when they come to the moment Joel met Clementine first met – his final memory of the relationship. Joel and Clementine are sitting on the beach and she turns to him and says, “This is it Joel…it’s going to be gone soon.” He sadly acknowledges the truth of her statement. She asks, “What do we do?” At which point Joel finally realizes what he should have done all along, “Enjoy it.” The last moments of this memory are spent in a beach house where both characters discuss their most intimate feelings about the beginning of their relationship. As the two talk, the house begins to crumble all around them and wash into the sea symbolizing the end of everything they built together. It is here we gain an insight into an otherwise very sad ending. Destruction is a form of creation. From the ashes of fire the Phoenix will rise. As Eliot says in East Coker, “In my beginning is my end. In succession / Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, / Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place / Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.” The film crystallizes its discussion of eternal recurrence in its last scene, where we see the two lovers running away form us along the shore – this scene is repeated several times. We now know that Joel and Clementine have been living this same relationship for possibly all eternity. No matter how much either of them tries they will forever perambulate through this cycle of, falling in love and out of love, birth and death, destruction and creation.