Day 62: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

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

Day 12: Melancholia

A planet called Melancholia is approaching Earth. Scientists believe it’s going to pass right by without doing any damage but scientists can be wrong sometimes.

During the first 8 minutes of this film all I could think was “Uuuuggh I’ve stumbled upon a dreadful art student’s film.” You’ve got a woman running in slow motion, carrying a child, across a golf course, a beautiful shot of a horse lying down, a bride being attacked by what I thought were branches but turned out to be yarn (easy mistake…). All in slow motion. Pretty sure they could’ve done away with the first 8 minutes. It immediately put me on my guard thinking the film was going to be horrendous when in actual fact, it was not.

We’re treated to the wedding reception of Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård). The party paid for and organised by her sister, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and John (Kiefer Sutherland), who don’t let them forget it. Throughout the lavish affair Justine is not happy. It’s clear she has been like this for a long time but it seems to be amplified here. Perhaps because everyone expects her to be happy and isn’t accepting of how she feels. Just because you throw money at something and make it into a massive event doesn’t mean it will make someone happy. Michael leaves Justine because apparently he can’t deal with how she is despite the fact they were obviously in a relationship longer than one night so he would know how she acts. While I can understand the frustration that what you intended failed, I’m siding with Justine here. They all know that this is how she is so to expect her to behave differently just because they put in some effort is selfish.

Claire has clearly been the perfect hostess all her life and she does seem quite the natural. But with the planet looming closer she begins to unravel. The end of the world isn’t something you can manage away, it is real and she finds it terrifying. Her role in the film was the more interesting for me because it followed her descent from perfect hostess to frightened human. Life is going to end and she doesn’t know how to handle it. Her husband tries to reassure her that the planet will pass right on by and it’ll be beautiful and yet she never feels quite at ease. Her fears are confirmed when she finds him dead; he realised what was really going to happen and he killed himself. I thought he was a coward and I’ve never thought someone who killed themselves was a coward before so it was a surprising moment for me.

The film has made me think what I would do if I knew the world was going to end. Would I spend it with anyone? Would I do anything special? And you know, I don’t think I would spend it with anyone. I would try to get to a really tall building and I would watch the world end and I would do it alone. I wouldn’t call anyone to tell them I love them because what would be the point, really? If we are all going to die at the same moment, what does it matter? I can’t take that information with me anywhere (I don’t believe in an afterlife) so it just seems to be a waste. Especially since it would most likely not be sincere; of course you’ll tell people you love them, you’re hardly likely to tell them you’ve hated them all the time you’ve known them. I imagine people will be frantically telling others that they loved them. I love you. I love you? Those are just words. Love is shown through actions and you don’t have time to do anything now because the world is going to end. If you really loved them you would’ve shown them before now.

The world might not end for each of us at the exact same time but when you die, the world has ended for you. And we are all going to die. We forget it, put it off but it is definitely going to happen. If you love someone, why not let them know now? That way you can put your love into action and then it will mean something. Words, at the end of the day, are not enough. Do.

8/10