Lovestruck: Have you forgotten me? Through the memory lane of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Forgetting someone is sort of an emotional murder. Whipping off someone from your past will cost you the loss of who you were before you became who you are. When the heartbreak has left you in pieces, you will have encountered a million moments where you wish you had just forgotten about that person. Yet, if you got a chance to erase them from your memory lane, would you do it? Would you breathe out all the giggles and smiles and bid them a forever goodbye? The 2004 romantic science-fiction Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is built upon the same idea. 

Which is stronger? Love or grief? When Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) erased each other off their heads after a catastrophic breakup, I guess we would have known the answer. Every time I watch Clementine saying, “Remember me. Try your best. Maybe we can”, I would always like to think of Eternal Sunshine as the deepest cinematic dive into one’s memories. It makes me take a swim into my remembrance, to meet the ones who had forgotten our love and the ones I left behind like Joel met Clem in the deepest corners of his mind. And there are times when I am convinced about taking refuge inside those memories and not coming back forever, as he did.

The technicians at Lacuna clinic help the couple to erase the memories from their brains, not their hearts. As Dr Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) said, “Well, technically it is brain damage." Going forward, Jeol finds out how much damage Clem has done to his brain so that he could never erase her. When she wipes him off her mind after a fight, he decides to do the same, with a heavy heart. But as he re-visits each of their moments during the process, he realises he would never want to go off with her or her memories. The mental procedure takes him to many memories of the couple in reverse order, which is the most magical and thoughtful cinematic representation.

Joel resists, trying his best to stop the process, as their love story starts disappearing backwards. Slowly forgetting the woman he loved, he killed himself with his brain. “I can’t remember anything without you," he says, and at this point in the movie, I would go numb for a second.

The tape that records their memories is an element that connects their past to the present. When Joel says, “you spend that much time with someone, only to find out she is a stranger," I would think about some of the strangers I have met in my life and the quality of familiarity I felt for them. Then I would doubt if I had taken a trip to Lacuna as well. Maybe it is easier to pretend that I didn’t know them.

Waking up, realizing Clem has dripped off his nerves, he takes a train to Montauk, where they first met. On returning home, he meets her again on the train, only to give a fresh start to their frozen memories. Shock-struck by the fact that they share a past, the couple decides to give them a try. After all, timing is the easiest thing to blame. Haven't we all wished the same at least once?

The psychological drama, sci-fi and nonlinear narrative techniques used in the film, along with the visual style, musical score and performances, are an absolute ride into fantasy. As subplots, the movie also opens with Dr. Howard’s and his assistant Mary’s history of erasing each other, making the narrative more personal. The title phrase, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, being adapted from Alexander Pope’s epistle that talks about suppressed love, the movie offers a poetic journey as well.

Besides having a cult following, the movie was a huge box office success, with an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Winslet also won a nomination for Best Actress for this reverse-romantic tale helmed by Michel Gondry and penned by Charlie Kaufman.

I’m quite sure every time somebody watches this film, their memory lane receives a sudden spark. Perhaps it is the illumination of a long-erased memory, perhaps the need to find refuge in the past, perhaps love is stronger than grief.

So, what is a love story spelt backwards? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Perhaps it is.