Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind



""How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned.""

- Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, as quoted by Mary Svevo.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 science fiction drama/comedy, directed by Michel Gondry, written by Charlie Kaufman and starring Jim Carrey in one of his more serious roles. The film primarily follows Joel Barish, a recently dumped man who discovers that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has undergone a memory wiping procedure in order to forget their relationship together. In an act of spite, he opts to undergo the same procedure. What follows is a rather surreal journey through his memories, as he re-experiences their entire relationship. It doesn't take long for him to realize he'd rather not forget his experiences...

The result is a film that's both funny and poignant, to the point where it won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

"Joel: Is there any chance of... brain damage?
 * Amnesiac Lover: Clementine, and later
 * for Dr. Mierzwiak.
 * Anachronic Order: The film opens with though this isn't immediately apparent. A lot of the memories revisited during the erasure procedure are visited out of order, particularly when Joel starts fighting back in response; as a linear series of events, the good in Joel and Clementine's relationship is slowly extinguished and forgotten (providing the original motivation for the procedures in the first place).
 * And I Must Scream: It's not that the doctor won't stop... it's just that Joel can't tell him to.
 * This especially applies when Joel "wills" himself conscious long enough to look at the assistants with desperation in his eyes (but cannot speak) as they drug him back to sleep.
 * Beta Couple: Mary and Dr. Mierzwiak.
 * The Blank: faces in partially-erased memories.
 * Bottle Fairy: Clementine and Mary often get "amiably drunk" (the latter even smokes pot).
 * Brain Bleach: Deconstructed Trope through Lacuna Inc's memory wipe procedure, which arguably makes up most of the plot.
 * Caught With Your Pants Down: One of Joel's humiliating memories is his mother catching him masturbating to furry porn as a teen.
 * Women Are Wiser: Inverted: as Clementine's Manic Pixie Dream Girl status is deconstructed, Joel goes from being simply Comically Serious to being the closer-to-Earth counter to Clementine's bare recklessness.
 * Dawson Casting: This kind of story would conventionally employ leads in their early to mid twenties. Winslet was nearly 30 when the movie was made, and Carrey was over 40. Rather than intentionally subverting age stereotypes, the movie seems to hope you just don't notice.
 * The "alternate script" mentioned under Word of God below suggests that at some point the production might have contemplated following these characters across a longer span of time, and further into the Cynical end of the spectrum.
 * Also, Joel specifically points out how Clementine is now dating a 'young guy' (Patrick). So the movie very much acknowledges that both leads are older, and their characters may very well be in their thirties.
 * Dead Person Impersonation: A variant - Patrick uses materials Joel dumped off (including lines Joel said and gifts bought but never given) to woo Clementine - while the original person isn't dead, the memories are, and Patrick attempts to use that to his advantage.
 * Dead Sparks: Where Joel and Clementine's first relationship ends (starts?).
 * Deconstruction: The film deconstructs the romantic comedy genre simply by showing the events of the weeks after Joel and Clementine fall in love.
 * Even more than that, the Anachronic Order we see things in is the normal order of a Romantic Comedy: first the fight, then they fall in love. We see it in that order, but really it's the reverse order as they fell out of love.
 * Double Take:
 * Dude, She's Like, in A Coma: Stan says this almost verbatim to Patrick after he tells him he stole a pair of Clem's panties. There's an awkward silence before they both break out laughing.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: Joel and Clementine are back together. Will it work out this time, or will history just repeat itself? Neither one knows, but that's not going to stop them from trying.
 * Fake American: Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson (both British) and Jim Carrey (Canadian).
 * Genre Busting: A Science fiction romantic comedy most of which takes place inside the main characters head.
 * Ironic Echo: "I'll be sure to remember that." * memory erased*
 * Kaleidoscope Hair: Clementine frequently re-dues her hair.
 * Kick the Dog: Deleted scenes reveal that.
 * Not just deleted scenes. It's very brief, but
 * This being after he specifically told her earlier that she had personally wanted the procedure.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Well, computer guided really...
 * Literary Allusion Title
 * Lost Love Montage: Plot justified, with the memory-erasing procedure causing Joel to relive his memories of Clementine and realize why he fell in love with her in the first place. As part of the Deconstruction, some downright bitter memories appear as well.
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Clementine. Lampshaded ("I'm not a concept, Joel. I'm just a fucked-up girl looking for my own peace of mind"), and a Deconstruction insofar as it shows what happens once the novelty of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl wears off and the meaning of the words becomes apparent.
 * It also subverts a common element of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, in that it is usually inexplicable that the free-spirited girl would be so interested in the quiet, reserved guy.
 * Maybe Ever After: The ending.
 * Meaningful Name: Clementine - which means "merciful."
 * The fruit may have been part of what led them to make her dye her hair orange, and also informed Joel's nickname for her.
 * "Lacuna" is a gap, blank, or missing piece; in Italian, it also refers to a memory lapse.
 * Memory-Wiping Crew
 * Mind Screw: The memory erasing procedure is this both for the characters and for the audience.
 * Modesty Bedsheet
 * Ms. Fanservice: Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst get many nice underwear shots.
 * Never Heard That One Before: One of the first things Clementine asks Joel not to do is make jokes about her name. He immediately starts singing "Oh My Darlin', Clementine".
 * Inverted in the beginning  where Joel has no memory of the song   Clementine ends up reciting the whole thing herself.
 * Once More, With Clarity: The scenes of Joel meeting Clementine on Montauk at the beginning are repeated later, at which point it's clear that they're Even the sound of a van driving away outside as Joel wakes up turns out to be
 * Perma Stubble: Joel sports a non-manly variation thereof.
 * Playing Against Type: As opposed to their usual roles, Jim Carrey plays The Comically Serious while Kate Winslet plays the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
 * From the supporting supporting roles, Elijah Wood plays a shallow douchebag.
 * The Reveal: Mary The fact that the film sets this up to happen again is in keeping with the theme that You Can't Fight Fate where love is concerned.
 * Not to mention that  Probably qualifies as a First Episode Spoiler.
 * Screw Destiny:
 * Knowing Clementine, she has been going to Montauk every day in an effort to recreate the first meeting, which goes some way to explaining why a lot of "present day" Clem behaviour is filled with Wangst: each time he doesn't show up it drives her crazy, but because of the procedure she can't quite say why, especially not to Patrick... babyboy.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The movie itself is ambiguous (or at least balanced) on this, but it does seem to be fairly effective at revealing where viewers are on the scale.
 * Third-Person Flashback: Possible aversion as we see the movie as a third person memory of the protagonist's dreams. In real life he has no memory of his romantic rival's face because he didn't see it, so even though we see it in third person, no matter how he moves the guy he's always The Blank.
 * Throw It In: A scene length one. While filming in downtown Manhattan, they heard that there was a circus parade going on outside. Gondry grabbed a portable camera, and got some footage of Carrey and Winslet messing around in the crowd completely anonymous due to it being night time and since the actors were wearing winter gear. The result is one of the happier memories in the movie.
 * Title Drop: The page quote.
 * Transferable Memory: Averted.

Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage."

"Hollis: Don't be a monster, Howard. Tell the poor girl. You can have him."
 * Unreliable Narrator: Joel. A great portion of the film is told through Joel's memories of events he experienced with Clementine, but the unreliability of those memories is shown on at least two occasions. When Joel first arrives home the night of the erasure, his neighbor chats with him about Valentine's Day. This is then the first substantial memory about Clementine that gets erased. But while this event took place just a short while (maybe an hour at most) before the erasure, it is shown that Joel is already incorrectly remembering what his neighbor said to him. Other less obvious hints abound (e.g. Joel remembering childhood events while being adult in appearance). Taking the imperfection of human memory alongside whether Joel considered a given memory as enjoyable or upsetting, the audience ought to wonder if what they're viewing is what actually happened, or if Joel's memories are distorted, exaggerated, or embellished because of the passing of time and because of his emotional state at the time of the event.
 * This troper always believed that when you see Joel as an adult (when he's in a childhood memory), that represents the adult Joel interacting with the memory. This is why he can talk about wanting his mother's attention and then turn to Clementine and articulate his feelings in adult terms. When you see Joel as a kid, that's not Joel reliving the memory as much as simply remembering it.
 * Wham! Line:


 * Where Were You Last Night: The last time Joel saw Clementine before she had him erased was when she stumbled in the door at 3 A.M. after drunkenly scraping his car against a fire hydrant. The fight coming from Joel's reaction was Clementine's impetus to the procedure.
 * Word of God:
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Clementine and Joel show signs that they would have gotten back together.