eternal sunshine of the spotless mind stream

#Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind stream movie#

And doesn't that, also, reflect many of our experiences in relationships with pwBPD? And I will get bored with you and resent you.' Joel says, 'OK,' willing to go through the whole thing again anyway. Clementine lays out the facts for Joel, saying something like, 'You don't realize it now, but there's a lot about me you don't like. They already know that they do not work as a couple. The film ends with Joel and Clementine realizing that they've already been together but had their memories erased. We often try to shut out the pwBPD but secretly (or not so secretly) hope that they will hoover us.

In fact, this is a dynamic that I think is often present in real life.

I viewed this whole sequence as Joel being NC with Clementine but holding out hope that she would hoover him. Finally, on the train, Clementine says 'Hi,' approaches Joel, and starts a conversation. Clementine, on the other hand, initiates overt contact with Joel at the diner and at the train station by waving at him and with other similar gestures. At the beach, at the diner, and at the train station, Joel stares at Clementine but is too afraid to make contact. Again, NC seems to be too difficult for him.Īfter the procedure, when Joel goes to Montauk (but doesn't understand why he's forgotten the procedure), Joel and Clementine encounter each other with no memory of their entire history together. My first thought was that this was a hoover, but it's not really Clementine imploring Joel to meet her again, is it? It's Joel's own consciousness. Inside Joel's mind, before the procedure is complete, Clementine tells him to meet her in Montauk. But I digress.ĭuring the process of Joel's memory alteration, his consciousness resists. This has always been an interesting question to me, too: What is the difference between going NC and a discard? Technically speaking, maybe not much. When Joel decides to follow Clementine's lead and erase her from his memory, too, I saw it as his attempt to go NC. Joel runs into her, not knowing her memory has been altered and recalls the event, saying something to the effect of, 'She looked at me like she didn't even know me.' I'm sure many here have felt similarly after a particularly harsh discard. The film greatly explores the importance of memories and how they have an impact on one’s own future. Most of Clementine's BPD behavior is fairly obvious throughout the film, but when she erased Joel from her memory, I saw that as a discard. Michel Gondry’s film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, tries to answer the age old question of whether or not it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I'll use the spoiler tag to share some of my thoughts just in case. Critic Reviews for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Its a surprising, clever sci-fi twist, even as the relationship drama it dredges up doesnt feel at.

#Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind stream movie#

I rewatched this movie for the first time in years last night and there's a lot that can be talked about here. Many have called Kate Winslet's portrayal of Clementine one of the most realistic depictions of BPD in film.