Critical Analysis of 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'

The start and finish of this film are brilliantly done, tying the entire movie together without allowing you to realize it until you get to the end. The film kinda reminds me of an infinity loop twisting and turning but always ending where it started. The start and end really are Montauk for these two main characters. This movie is one with great philosophical questions up to interpretation through how the characters’ actions and conversations are played out.

This movie has twists and turns everywhere even the plot can be hard to follow. We’ll cover what happens in every scene from where characters appear and their developments. First, we see Joel wake up and get out of bed. By how he acts we can tell he really doesn't want to. Joel calls in sick and takes a train to a beach where it's freezing cold. Then Joel begins narrating some things to us. He tells us some things like “he's not an impulsive person, that sand is overrated, and that his chances of meeting someone new aren't too hot, because he can't make eye contact with a woman he doesn't know.” Joel thinks about getting back together with a nice girl he uses to date. This first scene is all about the two main characters meeting. After the beach, we see this random girl that Joel had seen walking on the beach, at the local restaurant, at the train station, and now on the train too. We see her try waving to him and being friendly, but Joel is clearly shy. On the train, we see the first introduction of the girl, when she sits by Joel she says her name is Clementine. Joel and Clementine talk about hair dye and the 'Clementine' song, which Joel insists he has never heard before. We also find out that Clementine doesn't think a whole lot of nice things about herself. Joel tries to be nice, but it backfires because Clementine doesn't like 'nice.' But then she decides she does like 'nice, 'and she apologizes. This whole first part of the movie sets up who the two are and shows their personalities.

In the next scene, we see Joel gives Clementine a ride home, where she offers for him to come in and have a drink. Despite the unsure reaction he goes inside with Clementine, where they drink and talk. Clementine sits uncomfortably close to Joel and tells him she knows that she's going to marry him. She asks him to drive to the Charles River with her, which he does. She's definitely more outgoing, random, and spontaneous but it is something that interests Joel. In the next scene, we see a big part as Clementine and Joel walk on ice, as Clementine is daring and has to coax Joel to come out with her, convincing him the ice is thick and won't crack. Joel and Clementine lie down, and Clementine asks which constellations Joel knows. Not knowing any, he makes one up. After Joel drives Clementine home, but she sort of invites herself to sleep at his place. Joel agrees and while Joel's waiting for Clementine, some random dude asks him what he's doing there. The part of the movie shows how they have changed and how the relationship worked

Next in the movie, we see Joel driving on a dark rainy night, crying to himself in his car. When Joel gets home there are some weird people in a suspicious van. When Joel is inside his neighbor Frank talks to him and says he's lucky to have Clementine, especially given that Valentine's Day is approaching. We see that Joel doesn't look too happy about Frank mentioning Clementine. Inside his apartment, Joel takes a pill, which knocks him out. The people from the van come in carrying some very strange equipment, such as a metal helmet straight out of some B sci-fi flick. Joel is in bed remembering his talk with Frank, the memory slowly disappears until it's finally gone. Then Joel's at Carrie and Rob's house, explaining this thing that just happened. He and Clementine haven’t been doing so well, so he goes and gets her an early Valentine's Day necklace to make up for it. When Joel goes to Clementine's work to give it to her, it's like she doesn't even recognize him. She's also kissing some total stranger who we don’t know yet but will later. We see Joel leave the bookstore, and that memory fades, but it is hard to tell if it is a memory at all and not the present. Then the big news happens: Rob shows Joel a slip of paper from Lacuna that says Clementine has had her memory of Joel erased. This part of the movie establishes what is going on and why the characters have changed.

Joel goes into this Lacuna place, where he gets confirmation that this whole 'memory erase' thing is no hoax. Here the doctor tells Joel that all information is confidential and that he should have never seen the slip of paper. The only thing the doctor can tell Joel is that Clementine wasn't happy and wanted to move on. In his anger and sadness, the non-impulsive Joel makes another impulsive decision. He wants to erase Clementine, just like she erased him. On the doctor's orders, Joel cleans out his place of all items that have any association with Clementine. Apparently, the Lacuna people can use these things to create a map of Clementine in Joel's mind so that she can be erased. Joel will go to sleep, and then the procedure will begin, which we've already seen the start of this. Joel goes to Lacuna with his bags of stuff to prepare for the procedure. The doctor has Joel recount how he met Clementine. When Joel asks if there is a risk of brain damage, the doctor says that, technically, the procedure is brain damage. The technician Stan has Joel focus on the objects he associates with Clementine so that his brain can be mapped. We cut to the procedure taking place in the apartment, where Joel is in his own head, looking at the memories as they're being erased. We find out that the dude working with Stan is named Patrick, the same guy that was acting aggressively with Joel outside of Clementine's place when they first met. As the memories of Lacuna shoot by, we stop at a particularly important one: the last time Joel saw Clementine. Clementine comes home really late after having dented Joel's car; she was driving drunk. Clementine says Joel is scared she had sex with someone, and Joel says he assumes she did because that's how she gets people to like her, and then clementine leaves. As the memory continues, Joel chases after Clementine, yelling that he's already having her erased—and that she started it. Clementine keeps disappearing and reappearing, and cars start falling out of the sky as the memory collapses. Joel can hear the voices of Stan and Patrick. Patrick is talking about how, when they erased Clementine's memories, Patrick fell in love with her, stole her panties, and then went to her work and asked her out. Stan and Patrick briefly consider the ethics of using their profession to pick up single, unsuspecting women… but then they laugh it off and drink some beer.

The memories continue as it is now Halloween, and Joel pretends to be killed but Clementine isn't amused. Then Joel and Clementine are at a market and Clementine says she wants to have a kid. Joel asks Clementine if she thinks she should take care of one. Joel is in bed with Clementine and, when she tells him that he needs to open up more, he responds that constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating. Wow, now this whole 'erasure' thing is starting to make more sense. Then they're eating at a restaurant and Joel wonders if they're one of those couples everyone feels sorry for, the 'dining dead.' Patrick calls his girlfriend, who we know is Clementine and who he calls Tangerine. She is sad and Patrick goes to hang out with Clementine. Patrick literally has all of Joel's mementos in his backpack, and he is referencing them to help along with his relationship with Clementine. He even gives Clementine a necklace Joel bought but never had a chance to give her himself. Back with Joel, Mary and Stan are smoking pot and dancing to music with fewer clothes on than they had before. Mary is talking about how amazing Doctor Howard is for giving the gift of memory loss to so many people. We see the development of their relationship as they travel through his memories. Clem and Joel are in bed, and Joel is convincing her that she's pretty. Then Clementine and Joel are lying on the ice, and Joel tells her that he could die at that moment and be perfectly happy.

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In the next part, we see Joel realizes that losing all the bad memories isn't worth losing all the good memories. He wants to make it stop so he grabs Clementine, and they run through various memories. We see Patrick stealing Joel's information and Dr. Howard explaining that he is only a figment of Joel's imagination. In the meantime, Patrick is lying on the lake with Clem, and he uses Joel's words about being happy—but this only makes Clem upset. Clem and Joel are chilling in a forest and clem tell him he should wake himself up. Joe opens his eyes, and for a moment, he can see the ceiling of his apartment. Then Joel and Clem are sitting on the couch, and Clem tells him they should hide in a different memory before the eraser people show up. This seems like a decent idea to Joel, so he thinks about a time when he was outside in the rain as a kid and then changes into another memory in which Joel is very young and playing with a yo-yo under the table.

Stan realizes that he's lost, Joel. Mary suggests they call Howard. Stan doesn't want to, but he does, anyway, because he can't think of what else to do. Joel and Mary are both still pretty high. Joel and imaginary Clementine are still in Joel's mom's kitchen, hiding, but Howard is there to find them. Howard finds Joel getting a bath in the sink and flushes him down it and then suddenly Joel's eyes are open. He gives Joel a shot at something to put Joel under even deeper. Clementine, always full of good ideas, tells him to hide in buried, embarrassing memories. First, Joel tries a memory in which his mom walked in on him masturbating. Then, he thinks about a time when he smashes a dead bird with a hammer under peer pressure. During this part of the movie, we see how on one side Joel wants to escape and the Dr. is trying to complete the job.

The next part of the plot helps the plot progress. We see that Mary really admires Howard's work and everything about Howard. Stan steps outside to 'grab some fresh air,' and Mary starts putting the moves on Howard. Howard's wife stops by and catches Howard and Mary kissing. Mary tries to apologize, but Mrs. Howard tells her that Mary and Howard already had a thing before. Howard doesn't really want to talk about it, but apparently, Mary herself has had the Lacuna procedure to forget her relationship with Howard.

Joel and Clem are at Barnes & Noble, where Clem works. Clem says she didn't expect to see Joel again, given the way he ran off. Nevertheless, Joel wants to take her out. Clem tells Joel she's not going to deal with his marriage, and she isn't going to fix his life. Clem asks Joel to remember her; then she disappears. Back in the present, Mary is in Howard's office, listening to the tape of herself recounting her memories of him. We've made it to the final memory—which is the first memory. Clem and Joel meet at a beach party, where Joel is immediately taken by her, especially her orange sweatshirt which he will come to love, then hate. Being impulsive as always, Clem breaks into a house and starts going through the liquor cabinet. Joel leaves, but in the memory he says. As the house disappears around Joel and Clem, they have a last goodbye. Clem whispers, 'Meet me in Montauk.'

After the doctor is all done we see the same opening from the beginning of the movie. Joel wakes up, finds the scratch that drunken Clementine left on his car, and makes a rare impulsive decision by taking a train to Montauk. We fast-forward to where we left off. Clementine goes inside to grab her toothbrush, but she also grabs her mail. Clementine finds a letter from Mary that tells her what happened. Clem plays the tape in Joel's car. Joel freaks out, thinks Clem is messing with him, and makes her leave the car. Clementine goes over to Joel's place where he is playing his tape. Joel wants to turn it off, but Clementine says it's only fair for him to hear. Joel starts saying lots of mean things, like how Clementine uses sex to get people interested in her. Clementine leaves, but as she walks down the hall, Joel catches up to her and asks her to wait. Joel tells Clementine that he can't see anything about her that he doesn't like. She counters that in time, he will and that she will get bored with him because that's what she does. Joel says, 'So?' Joel and Clementine laugh. They agree to try again for the first time. The final shot is of Joel and Clementine playing on a snowy beach, having fun.

The main philosophical question for me in this film is the one that we see the central idea trying to sell, that being is ignorance indeed bliss? When watching this film we inherently draw up the question is merely the sum of our memories or if there’s more to us than a summation of past experiences. In other words, by watching this fill we ask ourselves would erase past events from our memory really do us any good? Now we can come up with our own conclusion and interpretation of what the answer is but this film ultimately arrives at the conclusion of no. Despite the title of the film, it concludes that having a spotless mind does not bring eternal sunshine. The movie makes it where someone can have something wiped from their memory, but what the scientist in the movie didn’t realize was the memories were erased but the impulses, instincts, and emotions were still ingrained into their subconscious mind. This is where we see all the confusion and mixed emotions occur that eventually lead to their downfall. For example when Mary (Kirsten Dunst) discovers that she had an affair with Dr. Mierzwaik but then was erased. Although her memories were erased her impulses, instincts, and emotions for Dr. Mierzwaik were still with her. This allows her to arrive at the discovery, which then becomes the downfall of Dr. Mierzwaik’s company and progresses the film. Another example of how it wouldn’t work is when Joel and Clementine finally bid farewell inside his head. She leans in and whispers, “Meet me in Montauk.” The entire time that Clementine is aiding in his escape is actually a projection of Joel’s subconscious mind. She represents his will to hold on and he does so through what he knows of her spontaneous personality. When they challenge the erasing process by hiding in childhood remembrances and other “off the map” memories, the escape route is always suggested by Clementine. So when she whispers that final line inside his head, what he’s really doing is implanting an impulse; something Lacuna isn’t able to touch.