« spirit smoothie | Main | the mental rotation »
we saw eternal sunshine of the spotless mind this weekend. loved it. though when i walked out of the theatre i felt like i had just woken up from one of those stressful dreams, where you can’t keep your eyes open or everything is blurry and your eyes won’t focus.
not to mention the fact that jim carrey and kate winslet were fantastic, it was such a fascinating story. one of the things it challenged is the idea that we should avoid feeling (or remembering) pain at all costs. i read this book that talked about how advertisements teach us that there is always something to relieve our pain, whether it be physical, social or emotional, implying that pain should be avoided at all costs. it fails to communicate that in order for growth there needs to be a process of composting, where we work through the pain and bad things which in turn fosters growth/sanctification, whatever you want to call it. by erasing painful experiences we lose the opportunity for growth.
also, jason sent an interesting article about the science of memory that stirs up questions about the implications of improving our memories. while it wouldn’t seem that this would have negative implications, i believe that part of God’s grace is to allow our memories to fade in terms of both the “awesome” and “awful” of our lives. if we remembered the awesome experiences of life as intensely as when we first experienced them would we ever be able to enjoy the more “normal” parts of our life? or vice versa. would we ever be able to get over the awful crap we go through?
the ending was probably one of the most satisfying movie endings ever (if you haven’t seen it, stop reading NOW!). when confronting the fact that their relationship would bring pain, rather than avoiding it and protecting themselves, joel said “ok.”
was there a spoiler on the last sentence of this entry? my eyes, my eyes!
Truly the line is one of the most profound and amazing movie moments *ever*, so rest assured that I think it'd be really, really hard to spoil it (as true spoilers do).
I don't know why but I think "my eyes! my eyes!" is one of the funniest things people say...cracks me right up.
And it wasn't just what Carrey said, but *how* he said it, in this sort of "Aw shucks", deprecating manner. And that scene when they're sitting together on the stairs at the beach when they first met. Kate askes what they'll do, and Carrey says "Enjoy it".
Want a bit of a humdinger? Think about the very, very last shot of the film, when they're running down the wintry beach, and how that shot unfolds.
Ooop... I don't think "deprecating" was the word I was looking for there.
ok. now i need to see the movie again just to check out the last scene. rt, you ready?
this might also be a spoiler if you haven't seen it....
but i was reading an interview with gondry and kauffman, and they said that initially they wanted that last little walking down the beach bit to loop continuously throughout the credits. i think they ended up not doing it because the production company didn't like it or something, but what i thought was interesting was they said when they had it endlessly looped, audiences almost uniformly thought the end was depressing and negative in tone, whereas once they cut it to fade out after it loops about 3 times, people thought it had an upbeat ending.
True, but I suppose one could take that stand that the endless looping implied that somehow, they were "destined" for eachother, and kept ending up with eachother even after countless memory wipes. And I suppose the 3 loops also adds a certain poignancy to it all, whereas endless looping just drills into your head.
I found this on one of the forums I frequent... "The original screenplay ends on a much more downbeat note: 50 years into the future Clementine enters Lacuna to have Joel erased for the 15th time (although she's unaware of the previous 14 erasures). It hits home the idea that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it, which is a big theme of the original screenplay."
Personally, I'm very glad the film ends the way that it does, but again, the original ending does imply that they're somehow destined for eachother. They keep winding up together regardless of how many times they do the memory wipe. But after 50 years, that would get pretty gloomy and fatalistic.
loved this movie. both jeremy and i had tears in our eyes at the ending... i'm still processing it, so no more comments at this point.
rt, so glad you saw it! YAY!
it's interesting, because it really does walk a fine line of being really romantic and sweet (they're destined to be together) and rather depressing (they're destined to repeat history, always coming back to the same point of disillusionment with one another). I hand't heard that bit of information about the original script, but it did occur to me to wonder what would prevent them from having the process done again.
anyway, i really love this movie. i don't just love it, i lurve it.
i don't know what was the original intent, but it doesn't make sense to me that they would erase each other again and again. it's not like they didn't know their memory had been erased, they had the tapes to prove it. i don't know, it just doesn't seem to fit that they would do it again or even have the opportunity to do it again with mary's exposure of lacuna to all of its patients. but that's my take.
Well, it could be that in the original draft of the script, Mary didn't send out the tapes, and Joel and Clementine just kept meeting on the train and going from there. But if she had sent out the tapes in the original version, then you're right - there'd probably be some continuity issues.
I just finished reading the original draft of the script (beingcharliekauffman.com) and I must say, I like the end version MUCH better.
Anyway, in the script, Mary does send out the tapes, but people are so distraught and upset about having these stories about themselves they can't remember that a lot of them come back to get erased again. I guess it's not like a big public outcry over the process of erasure; it's more like Mary is the only one who's so upset. And she ends up keeping on working for Howard, listening to all the tapes of all the people so she can "keep" the memories - as she says to Stan, someone has to remember them.
The ending is much more depressing and dismal, with old lady Clementine having her memory erased at home, and old man Joel leaving a message on her machine begging her to return his calls - the Lacuna technicians press the erase button on the machine. Beep. The end.
Yikes! I'm *so* glad that Kaufman decided to use the ending that he did, rather than the one you just described. That would've just been painful to watch.
no kidding. this ending is much better...
Reader Comments