Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Overview
What if you could erase the person who broke your heart — and then, halfway through, realise you don't want to forget them at all? Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is a shy, introverted, depressed man, and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) is spontaneous, impulsive, and unpredictable. They meet on a train in New York City, fall in love, and their relationship is passionate and turbulent: they fight, break up, and get back together. Then Clementine decides to have Joel erased from her memory, going to Lacuna, Inc., a company specialising in memory erasure. When Joel learns what she has done, he decides to have her erased too. The story unfolds in a non-linear, fragmented, dreamlike way, asking whether we are the sum of our memories, and what love and loss really mean. It ends with Joel and Clementine meeting again after the procedure, receiving tapes of their interviews with Lacuna in which they reveal the worst things about each other. Disgusted, they decide to try again anyway, running through the snow, laughing.
