Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Charlie Kaufman film is fresh, original and has a romantic depth that makes this one of the most complete film going experiences I have had.

Just imagine instead of dealing with the pain and suffering of your past, you can erase people and moments from your memory and move on with your life, without giving it another thought. Your bad relationships can disappear. Your bad times gone. Well this is exactly what Joel and Clementine, the lead characters in the film, are offered.

Eternal Sunshine shows us that you must take the good along with the bad, because if your forget, you are destined to repeat your mistakes. Joel  doesn’t realise he made a mistake until he gets past their bad moments, and remembers all the good times he and Clementine had together.

‘You never know what you’ve got until its gone’

Most poignant for me is probably the way the film portrays our desire to forget, so that we can block out the mind numbing pain. Eternal Sunshine shows the way in which we tend to ignore and take for granted the love we have for our partners and then how often only realise after being rudely reminded by the pain of separation.

Jim Carrey’s performance was stunning. I would never have dreamed that he could play a shy, reserved and introverted man with both subtlety and compassion.

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d”