REEL REFLECTIONS

"ETERNAL SUNSHINE"
The Sweet Torture of Memmory

David Greiser

Readers of this column know that I love the films of Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"). "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," written by Kaufman and directed by music video director Michel Gondry, is, I believe, a worthy addition to Kaufman’s growing collection of quirky, reality-doubting, mind-bending, endlessly imaginative movies.

"Sunshine" might even have qualified as groundbreaking, had it not been preceded by "Being John Malkovich" (to say nothing of the "Matrix" trilogy, in a more commercially successful vein). These films explore the admittedly surreal notion of entering another person’s mind and altering the contents.

While the basic concept of "Eternal Sunshine"—a neurological procedure that erases unpleasant memories from the mind—is pure science fiction, the film itself plays more like a romantic comedy. To summarize: Joel Barish (played by a subdued Jim Carrey), a hangdog loner with profoundly low self-esteem, meets wild child Clementine Kruczyski (played by Kool-Aid haired Kate Winslet) at the Barnes and Noble where Clementine works. Their brief affair starts off promisingly, but then sours and ends badly.

Clementine decides to have all of her memories of the boring Joel neurologically removed from her memory banks at Lacuna, Inc. The technical staff at Lacuna, played by a supporting cast of Tom Wilkinson ("In the Bedroom"), Kirsten Dunst, and Elijah Wood (who looks nothing like his Frodo Baggins in "Lord of the Rings") harbor their own secretly erased romantic memories which are revealed in the course of the story.

When Joel learns that Clementine has had him "erased," he determines to return the favor, only to have second thoughts as the procedure is being administered. Through his chemically induced haze, Joel manages to recall good memories along with the bad, and he determines to keep the good.

Much of the film shows Joel as he desperately tries to hide his good memories of Clementine in obscure corners of his memory (one good hiding spot is under the kitchen table in his childhood home). Since the procedure erases the most recent memories first, as most forms of dementia seem to work, we’re led to believe that we’re watching Joel and Clementine’s relationship unfold from the end to the beginning. But alas, the human memory is not as reliable as videotape, and a long chase scene unfolds helter-skelter with little indication of whether the events Joel is remembering happened at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the affair.

"Eternal Sunshine" joins a growing company of films (most notably 1999’s "Memento") that feature nonlinear narratives. Rather than passively watching the story unfold in sequence, the viewer is required actively to sort out the various parts of the narrative thread. I nearly drove myself to distraction trying to figure out which of Joel’s memories occurred when in the relationship. I finally decided that the sequence of events mattered less than their emotional significance to Joel and Clementine.

Likewise, "Sunshine" takes its place alongside a surprising variety of recent films that explore the nature and functions of memory. Besides "Memento," one thinks of recent films as various as "Finding Nemo," "The Bourne Identity," and "50 First Dates." In its own way, each of these films makes the point that while specific memories fade, the energy and emotional imprint of love cannot so easily be erased.

When the trailers for "Eternal Sunshine" started appearing in theaters, many theatergoers mistakenly took it for a light farce with a sci-fi hook thrown in for interest. Nothing could be further from the truth. "Eternal Sunshine" is carried by a melancholy humor that wonders why we keep trying when relationships so often fail—and then answers its own question.

—Dave Greiser keeps his painful memories safely stored under the 1964 Phillies cap on his office shelf. When not in therapy, he pastors the Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church and teaches preaching at Eastern Baptist Seminary in Philadelphia.