Popcorn photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
I’ve decided to start doing movie reviews occasionally. Reason why? Watching movies is a great way to help with your writing. Seriously. Plotting, characters, etc. – all those elements are in a movie. I used to watch movies a lot back in the day. However, in recent years, time just gets away from me and I just don’t watch movies like I used to.
I viewed Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey a couple of weeks ago. I rented it on Amazon and watched it on my laptop one week night. I actually enjoyed it.
***Note, this is a secular movie.Can you imagine, having a torrid romance to end badly, and then having that person erased from you mind? Well, that’s what this movie is about.
Clementine (Kate Winslet’s character) falls in love with Jim Carrey. Two trouble souls have a torrid romance that ends badly. Clementine wants Jim Carrey erased from her mind. There’s a company that will do this – erase a significant other from your mind. They hook you up to a machine and when you wake up, you feel like you’ve had a hang-over and you have no recollection of your romance.
Before the eraser people put you under, you must bring all objects and momentos relating to the romance with you. You don’t want these things lingering in your home after the person is erased from your mind – after all, you’ll have no recollection of the item and having a love letter, gift, etc. from your erased relationship will only confuse you.
Jim Carrey is confused when he runs into Clemntine working at a bookstore. It appears she doesn’t even know who he is. Befuddled, Jim Carrey accidentally discovers that Clementine has had him erased from her mind. He’s determined to go through the same process – he wants to erase Clementine from his mind. However, havoc arises when Jim Carrey is put under – he discovers that he wants to hang onto Clementine’s memories.
Since he no longer wants to erase Clementine from his mind, he finds himself trying to hide his memories from the eraser people. The erasers are finding Jim to be a difficult patient, and they find the memories in weird spots on his brain.
This movie was a bit unusual and eclectic. It’s a love story with a bit of sci-fi/fantasy thrown into the mix. As I was thinking about this movie, I wondered, what if this same concept was used for other memories, not just botch romantic memories. Like, what if you could erase the memories of a spouse, or, what if you’d had a child who’d died and you were grieving? Would you want to erase those memories to feel better? I’m thinking, initially, you might want to, but, going through traumatic, tragic and sad moments are what shape us into the people we are today. If we could conveniently erase every bad memory, then, well, the world would be strange place.
Did you see this movie? If so, what did you think of it? Can you think of a memory that you’d consider erasing?
Leave a comment! 🙂
I didn’t see the movie, but my husband did, and he enjoyed it. If I could erase a memory from my mind, I guess it would be one of those cringe-worthy moments from junior high. I remember eating too much chocolate at lunchtime and getting sick. Yikes, lol! Have a great day!
Hi Brandi,
Yes, embarrassing moments would certainly be worthy of erasing from you mind. Just thinking about those things would certainly prove to be highly unpleasant! 🙂
Great idea, Cecelia! I love this movie so much, it’s in my top 5 of all time. I’m obsessed with this idea of changing our memories, erasing, manipulating, or just adjusting. In fact, I was working on a story built around this idea well before the film came out–wonder if Charlie Kaufman and I read the same article way back when or something…
Everyone can imagine wanting to erase certain memories and I know quite a few people who are living out ways to do just that. We can’t judge because everyone needs to repair something that happened to them in their past in order to move on and live free. God designed us all to experience a second chance and be “reclaimed” for our original, unimpeded purposes. Can you imagine if instead of trying to erase their memories, more people worked to reclaim them and use them to help others? What a world that would be…
Thanks for the opportunity to talk about this great film, Cecelia. Good to see you still pursuing writerly pursuits!
All his best, for his best!
Mick
Hey, Mick! I’m so glad you commented! What an interesting thought about re-claiming memories to help others. I’m thinking, if you’ve been through a tragic or traumatic situation, and then erased that memory, but then met someone who went through a similiar issue. You’d want to help that person, so you have that erased memory re-implanted in your mind.
That’d make a great book idea! Neat hook!