Happy 20th Eternal Sunshine, Part 3!

As promised, more articles looking back at Charlie's most commercially successful film, 20 years on. We're gonna start with what I think are the two most unique.

Ars Technica goes deep and gets thoughtful with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the philosophy of self, identity, and memory:

Like all good science fiction, Eternal Sunshine takes that grain of actual science and extends it in thought-provoking ways. In the film, so-called "problem memories" can be recalled individually while the patient is in a dream state and erased completely—uncomfortable feelings and all—as if they were computer files. Any neuroscientist will tell you this is not how memory works. What remains most interesting about Eternal Sunshine's premise is its thematic exploration of the persistence and vital importance of human memory.

So we thought it would be intriguing to mark the film's 20th anniversary by exploring those ideas through the lens of philosophy with the guidance of Johns Hopkins University philosopher Jenann Ismael. Ismael specializes in probing questions of physics, metaphysics, cognition, and theory of mind. Her many publications include The Situated Self (2009), How Physics Makes Us Free (2016), and, most recently, Time: A Very Short Introduction (2021). (Source)

Harper's Bazaar tackles Kate Winslet's head with We’re All Still Obsessed With the Hair in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, courtesy of Martine Thompson.

Kayla Casey, a hairstylist based in Los Angeles who wears her hair bright red, recently re-watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film revered for its use of unconventional hair color. “The way they portrayed hair color in the film and how they switched it up so often was so ahead of its time,” she says.

It’s been 20 years since Kate Winslet played Clementine Kruczynski, setting beauty inspiration boards on fire with her eye-catching rotation of hair colors. If you’ve never seen it, the 2004 oddball science-fictional romance stars Winslet and Jim Carrey as lovers who move forward with a medical procedure to erase all their memories of one another after a painful breakup. Clementine was brought to life onscreen by Winslet’s magnetic performance, Charlie Kaufman’s heartfelt script, and Michel Gondry’s directorial eye—but also, the artfully crafted wigs designed by Peter Owen, which resonate with fans around the globe to this day. (Source)

At The Mary Sue, Teresa Jusino talks about how the film Turned a Toxic Trope on Itself. The trope: that of the manic pixie dream girl.

Sci-fi romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind turns twenty years old today, March 19, 2024. As a huge fan of sci-fi and romantic movies, this one’s always been a favorite. One of the best things about it is the way it uses and subverts one of the most misunderstood and toxic tropes in filmed narratives.

[...] Eternal Sunshine is one of Kate Winslet’s most compelling performances in large part because she’s not playing one character, but three:

  • Clementine Prime, the OG Clementine we encounter in flashbacks as Joel tells Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) the story of their relationship.
  • Clementine 2.0, the Clementine with no memory of her relationship with Joel who bookends the film.
  • Memory Clementine, the version of Clementine accompanying Joel through his memories, who’s entirely a creation of Joel’s. (Source)

Michael Grant at The Comeback calls Eternal Sunshine the "best relationship movie ever made."

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind endures because of its relatable hypothetical. Everyone has been in a romantic relationship that didn’t work out how you hoped. If you could, would you erase it from your mind to spare you the lingering pain and regret? Or are you better off keeping those memories even though they cause you sadness and discomfort? (Source)

Collider's Claudia Picado says Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Is the Unsung Hero of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.

The film revolves around Joel and Clementine, but the supporting cast made up of Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst is more than just comic relief, and Dunst's character Mary becomes its unexpected heroine. Mary is the bright-eyed young receptionist at Lacuna Inc. who is infatuated with her boss, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), the man at the helm of Lacuna's memory removal service. For the majority of her screen time, Mary incessantly sings Howard’s praises to whoever will listen, including her boyfriend Stan (Ruffalo), gushing about his intelligence and all the good he does for the world. When it's revealed that Mary herself was subjected to the procedure to erase her memories of her past affair with Howard, she is heartbroken, but her reaction plays a vital role in Joel and Clementine's story and calls attention to just how unethical the procedure is. (Source)

RogerEbert.com's Matt Zoller Seitz tells us Why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Remains Unforgettable

"Eternal Sunshine" is the most perfect film ever made from a Charlie Kaufman screenplay, although Kaufman’s self-written directorial debut “Synecdoche, New York” is an altogether greater, or at least more grandly ambitious, work. Michel Gondry’s decision to shoot almost the entire film in a handheld, quasi-documentary style and have all the special effects appear to have been accomplished in-camera (i.e. through trickery on the set itself, in the manner of a filmed stage production) even when they were digitally assisted doesn’t just sell the idea that everything in the story is “really happening” even when it’s a memory: it blurs the line between what’s real and what’s remembered, an integral aspect of Kaufman’s script that informs every line and scene. The “spotlight” effects created by swinging flashlights on dark streets and in unlit interiors are especially disturbing. When the characters run or hide in those sorts of compositions in sequences, the film boldfaces its otherwise subtly acknowledged identity as a science fiction movie. Past and present (and possible future) lovers Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) might as well be rebels in a Terminator film, scampering through bombed-out panoramas and trying not to get zapped by a machine. (Source)

Jane Steventon from RTE chimes in to call the film an unflinching meditation on love and memory:

When writing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Charlie Kaufman could not have known about the seismic impact of social media in years to come. How we now lurk on our former lovers' profiles, view their photos, analyse their posts and remove images – metaphorically wiping the slate clean and willingly deleting our past.

This relatable angst of ridding ourselves of past memories of heartbreak is the premise of director Michel Gondry’s masterpiece, which is 20 years old this month. (Source)

And finally we have the New York Times behind a paywall with ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’: Still Hard to Forget. Which I'm sure is good, but, y'know... Paywall.

And while I'm here I just want to add, back around 2003 or so there was a website called The Trades, and they asked me to review a copy of CK's first draft of Eternal. I called the script the best thing Charlie had written up to that point, and I'm glad to see that 20 years on, people who do not run Charlie Kaufman websites think likewise. (These days, my fave CK film is Synecdoche, though I still believe Eternal Sunshine is the best script he's written.)

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