In the 1717 poem of “Elosia to Abelard,” Alexander Pope wrote, “The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.” The phrase ‘eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’ as written by Pope, is used to refer to the bliss that lies in ignorance.
The film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” by Micheal Gondry explores the idea that being blissfully unaware leads to joy and fulfillment, an idea shown through the relationship of main characters Joel and Clementine.
Although the film is from 2004, it was played at the State Theater on Jan. 22, introducing the lesser known movie to State College residents.
The film takes a unique approach to storytelling, with almost the whole duration of the film taking place inside the minds of Clementine and Joel. Due to the fact that they are polar opposites of each other, they show each other perspectives that the other would have never thought of before.
Clementine is impulsive, free spirited, and a little immature, while Joel is quiet, shy, and acts traditionally.
Even with all the good their differences bring, because they’re so different they begin to have issues with each other. Joel becomes dull in Clementine’s eyes, and Clementine has become too much for Joel.
Clementine, refusing to change herself and her free spirit way for Joel, gets a procedure to erase Joel entirely from her memory.
Sophomore Oscar Vebber has seen the film multiple times and described Clementine’s character. “A big part of her character is how impulsive she is, because she erased Joel from her memory multiple times just on impulsions,” Vebber said.
Clementine’s impulsivity causes issues for her, whether she sees those issues or not. Clementine represents a very specific kind of person, someone who does things on impulse because they’re scared of what they might find out or do if they were to think things through.
Vebber shared what they take away from Clementine’s character. “I think she has some sort of bipolar disorder, I think she’s a really well written character,” Vebber said.
After Joel finds out that Clementine doesn’t recognize him anymore, and has no recollection of their two year relationship, he decides to do the same thing as she did, to rid himself of the pain that Clementine caused him.
Junior Nolan Brautigam shared their interpretation of this moment. “It’s better to have bad memories and still be able to keep the good ones rather than try to push everything out,” Brautigam said.
During the procedure to get Clementine surgically removed from his memory, serious complications start to arise for Joel. While they’re erasing Joel’s memories, his brain starts to fight back against the process.
The bulk of the movie takes place inside these memories with Clementine, along with the alternate realities where they are together.
“I like how there’s a lot of scenes in his thoughts, he keeps going from place to place in a continuous shot,” Vebber said.
Though an unusual choice, it’s a choice that made the movie as impactful as it is. This bold choice can make the timeline of the story hard to understand for some.
“That’s the whole point of the story, that they are soulmates, and they’re meant to be together, so in each of these sort of different realities, they find each other,” sophomore Camille Mcconnon said.
After hours of trying to remove Clementine from Joel’s memory, the procedure doesn’t fully work, for the first time in the history of its existence.
In their last moments together in Joel’s mind, they’re back in the place they first met, at a beach in Montauk, New York. Everything is crumbling around them as his memory begins to fade, until Clementine utters the words, “Meet me in Montauk.”
Joel goes back to where the movie starts, and the last few minutes mirror the first few minutes. Though this time, without any knowledge of Clementine, Joel feels like he needs to go to Montauk where he meets Clementine.
“A lot of people could have different interpretations of the ending,” Mcconnon said.
Some might think that since Clementine and Joel both think they are meeting for the first time, the events of the movie will just repeat themselves, and they’ll both end up with spotless minds again.
Others believe that this time, their relationship could be different, because of everything they went through together with the procedure.
No matter which version people believe, “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” is a movie that will force the viewer to think more deeply about the actions they take, and value their relationships in their lives more.
