Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sun, Apr. 18th, 2004 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterReally very good. And I was expecting it to be good from everyone's comments, but I still did not expect the depth of my emotional involvement with the story or how hard it hit me.
Probably everyone knows now that it's about two lovers who decide to erase each other from their memories post-breakup. The structure really confused me at first, since it skips around timewise without any warning whatsoever -- the hardest part was figuring out when the outside structure sequences, focused on the Lacuna Inc. employees doing the erasing, took place.
I did not particularly like the outside structure until the final poignant payoff, and I was more confused than anything else by the outside world intruding on Joel's memories at first (overhearing conversations, etc.). I liked it much better when Joel grew more submerged in his memories, when he had figured out more what was going on.
And the more I watched, the more I invested I became in Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine, although part of me was kind of scared as well, because they sounded so much like the boy and me when we argue (I wonder, do all couples in the end argue in the same fashion? Just change the subject of the argument...). And it hurt when every memory was deleted, especially the one of them first meeting, and Joel's decision to change it.
I was thinking on the drive back on how much the movie horrified me on one level -- everyone keeps talking about a mindrape re: Angel's decision and Willow, and I agreed intellectually, but didn't quite get it emotionally. Now I do. I think I always did, it just took this to get it out. I cannot imagine making a decision to erase any of my memories; if anything, I would pay for a memory enhancing service. It disturbs me that already I can't remember exactly what my mice looked like, that I don't really remember Colorado, or the halls of NEHS. Everything is fuzzier. It's almost terrifying, pieces of yourself slipping away through your fingertips because of unused synapse paths, or whatever. It's particularly frightening for me because I place so much importance on my mind, on knowing things.
Who would I be without my memories?
The movie seems to embody the Santayana quote that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. In some cases, it might be good (I was rooting for Joel and Clementine). But there was just so much desperation in Joel attempting to keep the Clementine of his memories. And I wondered, how much of the Clementine in his memories was Clementine? If the people I know were suddenly replaced by people who acted only the way I thought they would in my mind, would I be able to tell the difference? There must be a sci-fi story on this somewhere.
And I have not even mentioned the really great performances of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, who I thought of as Joel and Clementine through the movie because they were most decidedly not Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
Probably everyone knows now that it's about two lovers who decide to erase each other from their memories post-breakup. The structure really confused me at first, since it skips around timewise without any warning whatsoever -- the hardest part was figuring out when the outside structure sequences, focused on the Lacuna Inc. employees doing the erasing, took place.
I did not particularly like the outside structure until the final poignant payoff, and I was more confused than anything else by the outside world intruding on Joel's memories at first (overhearing conversations, etc.). I liked it much better when Joel grew more submerged in his memories, when he had figured out more what was going on.
And the more I watched, the more I invested I became in Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine, although part of me was kind of scared as well, because they sounded so much like the boy and me when we argue (I wonder, do all couples in the end argue in the same fashion? Just change the subject of the argument...). And it hurt when every memory was deleted, especially the one of them first meeting, and Joel's decision to change it.
I was thinking on the drive back on how much the movie horrified me on one level -- everyone keeps talking about a mindrape re: Angel's decision and Willow, and I agreed intellectually, but didn't quite get it emotionally. Now I do. I think I always did, it just took this to get it out. I cannot imagine making a decision to erase any of my memories; if anything, I would pay for a memory enhancing service. It disturbs me that already I can't remember exactly what my mice looked like, that I don't really remember Colorado, or the halls of NEHS. Everything is fuzzier. It's almost terrifying, pieces of yourself slipping away through your fingertips because of unused synapse paths, or whatever. It's particularly frightening for me because I place so much importance on my mind, on knowing things.
Who would I be without my memories?
The movie seems to embody the Santayana quote that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. In some cases, it might be good (I was rooting for Joel and Clementine). But there was just so much desperation in Joel attempting to keep the Clementine of his memories. And I wondered, how much of the Clementine in his memories was Clementine? If the people I know were suddenly replaced by people who acted only the way I thought they would in my mind, would I be able to tell the difference? There must be a sci-fi story on this somewhere.
And I have not even mentioned the really great performances of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, who I thought of as Joel and Clementine through the movie because they were most decidedly not Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
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Mon, Apr. 19th, 2004 10:08 pm (UTC)(anlee)
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Tue, Apr. 20th, 2004 12:45 am (UTC)This is why I write so much in my LJ though.