Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

I procrastinated some more by watching Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, and whew it was a nice movie. I knew that it had a lot of positive reviews, but I guess I still didn't expect it to be interesting. I've read the synopsis before, and I just thought, "yeah two people losing their memory then getting back together, it doesn't sound that original". I don't think it was necessarily the plot that was the selling-point of the film, though. The overarching story line was okay, but it was the details in each little scene that generated an emotional response.

When I say that something was "emotional", I guess it doesn't mean much, because I've come to the realization that I cry at every little thing and maybe I'm just not very stoic. I just really liked the way the story was set up, how we explored to depths of the main character, and it made me realize that if you're lucky enough to meet someone who lights up your life, you shouldn't let go so easily. Sometimes things don't work out, and enough is enough, but I always feel that I wouldn't make the same mistakes of taking someone I love for granted.

Throughout the film I think I found a lot of resonance with Joel's character. Always too "boring", never brave enough to make the first move, avoiding the unexpected because life is easier to manage in a routine, anyway. I gotta say, he's luckier than I am so far, having met Clementine. Not that I would be happy with someone like Clementine, but he's lucky in the sense that he found someone he liked. I'm skeptical that you can be happy with someone who is so different from yourself- I don't think "opposite" necessarily means "complement". In terms of Clementine, I guess impulsive is exciting and excitement makes love seem fun, but I don't think I'd be able to stand someone like her, because impulsion means recklessness and danger and irresponsibility.

And this is probs why nobody "fun" wants to talk to me.

 I don't think the end of the film is their "happily ever after" though. It didn't feel like one of those things, where the couple went through hardship, and came out better. The problem with forgetting everything is that you never learn from it. If I had to predict their future, I'd say the tension between them start building within 6 months, and by 12 months they're at crisis point again. I wonder if they'd choose to forget each other again.

I also really liked the character Mary in the film. I thought she was just the ditzy receptionist, then I thought she was the slutty girlfriend- and by the time she tried to seduce the doctor, I really didn't like her. I can understand if it hurts too much to tell someone you like them- it's just a bad idea when they're married and all- but I wouldn't get into another relationship with someone while I liked someone else. People make such shitty excuses- like my current room mate. I don't want to say anything too mean about her, because I think she's just terribly stupid, not malicious- but she believes that she can cheat on guys because she can't trust them anyway. To me, that line of thinking is completely illogical and- well, disgusting, really. Just because you've had your heart broken by one man, doesn't mean that "all men are the same", and it certainly doesn't give you the right to go cheat on your next boyfriend. The way she justifies is she needs someone new to help her get over her ex, but she lapses sometimes so she goes back to her ex. I'm just sitting there thinking, "wtf is wrong with you", and I've tried to tell her how fucked up she is, but I haven't had much luck in changing her mind.

Back to Mary. So yeah I thought Mary was just another one of these terrible women- but when she tried to quote Alexander Pope to impress her crush, that's when I started feeling bad for her. She seemed to idolize him, even though I thought the doctor was just another average-looking old guy, it was weird that she fell for him. It's weird that you can like someone despite forgetting them entirely- you'd think that things would change- that you would change and that they would change and that the world would have changed. I wonder if that's what fate means, doomed to repeat the same scenario again and again and again, as you have in previous lives, and as you will in your next.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

It is a movie worth watching. It started feeling weird when I saw that their play-back device were cassette tapes though. I remembered having to rewind after you'd finished, and how I thought CDs were cumbersome, and how impressed I was that my MP3 player could hold 200 songs. The movie came out in 2004- and well, that WAS 12 years ago, but I didn't realize how far we'd come in this short span of time. The explosion of technology is truly incredible.

Anyway, that's enough procrastination for one night. Laters.