Painfully introverted gentleman, Joel (Jim Carrey), meets
loud and exciting lady, Clementine (Kate Winslet), and understandably falls in
love. But their relationship inevitably doesn’t work and they both end up
getting involved with this company who can erase specific memories, and they
decide to erase each other. While Joel is going through the procedure he
realises that he doesn’t want to lose his memories of his time with Clementine
and he tries to resist it but it’s too late.
To carry out the procedure, the company needs Joel to
collect all the items he has that remind him of Clementine. Fair enough I
understand there’ll be a lot of tangible things that he can hand over and be
rid of but what about other things? You associate certain songs with people,
and smells, and places. You can’t erase those, surely you wouldn’t be able to
get everything together to make that possible. Of course this kind of procedure
isn’t possible currently but maybe it will in future. Until then people will
just have to stick with what they usually do when they’re trying to forget
someone: get drunk. And that’s never all that successful.
The film jumps from memory to memory as the technicians are
erasing them. The last time he saw Clementine they had a fight, and I’m not
surprised they broke up because this was what was said:
Clementine: You’re freaked out because I was out late
without you. And in your little wormy brain you’re trying to figure out, ‘Did
she fuck someone tonight?’
Joel: No see, Clem. I assume you fucked someone tonight. Isn’t
that how you get people to like you?
In the immortal words of Cher in ‘Clueless’, that’s way harsh.
Of course the thought of her off fucking someone was clearly what kept him up
until 3am when she eventually got home, so it was obviously a problem for him but he definitely could've voiced his insecurities and concerns in a better way. You can’t just throw it out there in an argument, once you say something like
that there is no going back. And obviously that’s what happened; they split up
and she had him erased, prompting him to do the same. That’s not the only time
he was so completely rude to her in their relationship though. At one point he
tells her she’d be a bad mother. I mean, you can’t just say these things and
expect her to be alright with it. She wakes him up saying that he never tells
her things and that she tells him everything. He says that constantly talking
isn’t necessarily communicating, and she is hurt by it. No wonder she felt bad
being with him if he kept saying things like that. Although, of course, it wasn’t
always like that. They are lying out on the frozen lake together under the
stars and he tells her that he is the happiest he’s ever been, being right there
with her. Which is sweet but then the memory is gone and he’ll never have it
back.
I’m not sure about this memory erasing business. On one hand
I can totally understand why you would have it done. If you’re having a
difficult time moving on from someone, it makes sense you would want to do
anything you could that might help. But then, you’re not just erasing the bad
things that eventually spoiled the relationship, you are also erasing the good
things that made you happy. Like with Joel, he’ll never have that memory back
of being the happiest he’s ever been, and that’s just awful. Your relationships
with other people (not just talking romantic ones) can give you insight into
different aspects of yourself. With Joel and Clementine, he never did anything
and always shied away from socialising with people, but then Clementine came
along and just constantly pulled him out of his comfort zone, pushing the
boundaries of who he thought he was. To erase that time together is to erase
the knowledge that you can do so much more than you think you are capable of,
that you don’t have to be who you’ve always thought you were. My thoughts on
this always change from viewing to viewing of this film but today I’ve decided
memory erasing is a bad idea. But I’m never consistent on that.
They both end up finding out what happened and they listen
to the tapes of them talking about each other. I say talking but it’s really
just a complete tearing down of the other person. He talks about how she’s
insecure so will fuck anybody and she talks about how totally boring and
pathetic he is. It must be so difficult to listen to all the bad points of your
relationship before you even get a chance to have the relationship, and to have
perhaps negative things about you pointed out so mercilessly. She tries to
leave but he catches up to her and they both know it will probably not work but
they decide to go for it anyway.
Joel: I can’t see anything that I don’t like about you.
Clementine: But you
will. But you will, y’know, you will think of things. And I’ll get bored with
you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.
Joel: OK.
Clementine: OK.
9/10
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