Jerusalem, Patricia Noelle C.

BSECE 2-5

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

On Valentine’s Day year 2004, a man named Joel heads out to work, then realizing
that he’s miserable, changes his mind and goes to Montauk. It’s freezing cold and
snowing and it’s February in New York but he decides to walk the beach anyway so that
he can write in his journal and mope in peace. On the beach, Joel sees a woman with blue
hair, in an orange hoodie. He sees her again at a nearby diner, where he catches her
spiking her coffee. He sees her again on the train platform headed back home, she
playfully tries to get his attention and again on the train itself, where she introduces
herself as Clementine, defensively accosting him for not even knowing how to make fun
of her name, the way everyone else apparently has. “Why do I fall in love with every
woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?” Joel thinks. “I’m going to marry
you,” says Clementine, aloud. “I know it.”

This film reaches for something personal like troubling memories buried deep in
our psyche. It is a film that demands the presence of thoughts we put aside when
surrounded by people, things we only think about when we’re alone, buried in
everlasting thoughts. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is the rarest of all films, a
therapeutically liberating work of art.

One of the philosophical questions this film asks is whether we are merely the
sum of our memories or if there’s more to us than a summation of past experiences.
Would erasing an incident from our micro-history do us any good? Would a woman
erasing the memory of a rape make her happier or would removing the incident do more
damage to her life than the actual incident itself? Hence, she wouldn’t have learned
anything from it or become the stronger person she is today. Is ignorance indeed bliss?

The film ultimately arrives to the conclusion that no, having a spotless mind does
not bring eternal sunshine. You may forget a past memory but you can’t forget the
impulses, instincts and emotions that arose from that past incident. They are in some
sense untouchable because they shape who we are.

The film opens with a post-erasing scene. On Valentine Day, Joel feels the impulse
of going to Montauk instead of working and there he meets Clementine. She too
implanted that impulse during her erasing process and it’s such a beautiful encounter.
That cold day on the beach, they fall for each other all over again. Both Joel and
Clementine do in fact win at the end, implanting that impulse defeats the system in a
final attempt of desperation.

It tells is that letting go is one of the hardest things a person can do. It doesn’t
mean they’re giving up, it means they’re moving on. We hold on to things we value as if
they will cease to exist when we let go. The truth is they won’t. Letting go or giving up
isn’t an act of cowardice; quite often it’s an act of supreme bravery. “Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind” tells us to accept things as they are and make the most of what we
have when all hope is lost. It tells us that love is messy and challenging and ends in awful
ways but at the same time it says that it’s meant to be that way. The film makes clear that
love is a thing worth fighting for, a thing that is worth holding on to despite all the
challenges and setbacks. And although the very nature of love is a doomed one, and we all
have our ways to mess things up, Eternal Sunshine tells us to love regardless and learn to
take the pain that comes with losing love.