Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: A Tender Tale of Love and Memory
Joel, a worn but still dreamy middle-aged man, discovers on Valentine’s Day that his beloved Clementine has decided to erase him from her memory.
“Pages torn out – I don’t remember doing this,” are the words that open this story of amnesia. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman takes the well-worn dramatic device of memory loss to a wondrous tautology: double amnesia – not only did he tear pages from the diary, but he also forgot about it. A science-fiction premise from Philip K. Dick’s story – a machine that can remove unwanted sentiments from the head – becomes the driving force behind the most tender love story the 2000s could produce. A man comes home, takes a sleeping pill, and prepares to be erased.
The Process of Erasing Love
Most of the film meticulously shows the process of peeling away what was, from what was loved. Not some instant flash from “Men in Black.” Carefully, as if with a pencil eraser. Manually. Here, Kaufman needs Gondry with his awkward passion for detail. He understands the elusive matter of love almost like the protagonist of Goncharov’s “An Ordinary Story.” Love is not Dali and spheres, but simply someone’s lock of hair, a yellow water lily dried in a book, a moment remembered by pure chance.
Joel, in his sleep, rushes through his emptying consciousness in a panic – how could he have agreed to this, these are his best things! And the material signs of immaterial relationships fall into darkness, freeing up clusters for new feelings. The screenwriter triumphs over the director, who has not yet completely ossified in his pettiness. What is memory? Bah.
The Persistence of Love
To throw someone out of your heart is a completely different story. Love truly turns out to be an elusive matter. The devastated Joel is drawn to the winter beach where he once met Clementine. He doesn’t remember this, his legs move on their own. Clementine meets him again on the train – apparently, also from the beach. “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!” – this is the line from Alexander Pope that titles the film. For now, this can still be said about both authors of this story.