Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

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The mind is a complex entity – how can such a thing be spotless? Can something that is made to intricately hold memories and execute thoughts and actions based upon said reminiscences be so untarnished? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind discusses, through impeccable motion picture, this idea of the “spotless mind”. The compelling story begins when emotionally reserved Joel is headed to work in New York City one morning when he feels an incomprehensible compulsion to call off from his job and get on a train to Montauk, Long Island. On the train, he strikes up a conversation with Clementine (or rather, she sparks up a conversation with him), a free spirit whose hair changes colors with her mood. Despite radically different personalities,
It suggests that experiences and knowledge are necessary for growth, and it displays the faults of ignorance. The film establishes that the problem with Dr. Howard’s procedure is that it only functions on a superficial level. It erases concrete memories, but it fails to address the basic tendencies, desires, and personality traits of the characters and therefore, history seems destined to repeat itself. The implication is, then, that by erasing these painful memories, Dr. Howard’s procedure also removes the potential for these characters to learn from their mistakes, leaving them destined to repeat old patterns, for better or for worse (in this case, worse, proving that ignorance is not, in fact, bliss). The film ultimately arrives to the inference that no, having a spotless mind does not bring eternal sunshine. There is no such thing as a truly spotless mind. You may forget a past memory but you can’t forget the impulses, instincts and emotions that arose from that past incident. They are in some sense untouchable and unchangeable because they shape who we are..
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind illustrates this perfectly when Joel and Clem are both placed in this recurring
The characters Joel and Clementine are ignorant – meaning, they are unable to remember the pain from their last relationship. Because of this, because they do not remember feeling the pain, they could not learn from the experience. They did not have the option to grow as intellectual beings. They choose to do it all over again, despite the fact that they knew it would inevitably fall apart. During the final scene, after Joel and Clementine find out about their past relationship and how nastily they ended it, Joel tells Clem that he still wants to be with her. He claims he cannot see a single thing wrong with her; not a single flaw. She responds with: “But you will. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me” (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). And it is. Clementine spoke the truth about exactly what happened previously, but Joel’s answer to her reasoning was simple. Although he had the vague knowledge of his past relationship to her, he solely replied with “okay”, because he could not understand to full effect the suffering he had gone through, and was unable to ascertain what was formerly done wrong. To make the correct choice, he would have needed his memories of Clementine to be

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