Words of Innocence and Experience

Lost time is found again?

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is an atypical romantic drama, as suggested from its unusual title. From the beginning to the end it leads the audience to a journey mixed with joys and sorrows resulted from one failed romance. After watching the movie, its philosophical connotation makes me ruminate over and over.

The movie starts with a somberly subtle suspense when Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) met supposedly for the first time. They were attracted to each other at once and spent the following day together, yet the delight of finding the right person is blurred by an unknown scent of sadness, which voluntarily produces a mysterious circumstance to continue the storytelling.

Another part of the story begins as Joel decided to cleanse Clementine thoroughly from his mind after he discovered that she had taken such a drastic measure in an attempt to turn over a new leaf. However, when the operation was being carried out, Joel re-experienced every moment he and Clementine had spent together. Although some were sweet and some were painful, Joel found that the memories were too precious to let go. With his headstrong reluctance, he made efforts to resist to the overwhelming procedure of the operation. His struggles were out of question futile, yet there were quite a few things he could have done or could have undone to mend the doomed relationship. Therefore, Joel reviewed his intense love for Clementine with a more thoughtful attitude in the fictitious occasions created in his brain before they disappeared.

Perhaps it is an axiom that people will not learn to treasure things until they are lost. However, we always end up treading in the wrong footsteps again and again. The subplots in the film serve as another evident proof. Everyone, black and blue from the wounds their troubles cause, is victim to this unchangeable cycle.

The memory may no longer exist; nevertheless, fate or some divine power still gather the same people in one cluster. When Joel and Clementine reunite in the end, will they go through their same old problems and suffer another painful breakup thereafter? On the other hand, is true love everlasting so that even though the two lovers are strangers, destiny or fate will eventually unite them? The movie can be interpreted in two aspects, both are thought-provoking.

Love can be both bliss and anguish, yet it is not to be denied. Its presence everywhere weaves human life into an inexplicable mystery, in which we feel and breathe.

Highly recommended. 5/5