Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
エターナル・サンシャイン
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Two exes erase each other from memory and meet again on a Montauk train.
On Valentine's Day, Joel Barish, a shy, bookish man, skips work and takes the train to Montauk without knowing why. On the beach, and again on the train home, he meets Clementine Kruczynski, an impulsive, outspoken woman, and they are drawn to each other. That night they go out onto the frozen Charles River.
Then the film goes back. Joel and Clementine have been together for two years, and their fights have been getting worse. After one of them Joel takes a present to the bookshop where she works, and she treats him like a stranger and flirts with another man in front of him. She has had every memory of him erased by a firm called Lacuna. Hurt, Joel asks for the same. He records a tape about everything that went wrong, and that night Lacuna's technicians, Stan and Patrick, work on his brain in his apartment while he sleeps. Stan's girlfriend Mary, the receptionist, joins him and they party. Patrick slips out to see Clementine: he has fallen for her and is courting her with Joel's memories, gifts and lines.
Inside Joel's head, his memories of Clementine play backwards as they are wiped, from the last fight to the happy beginning, and he realises he does not want to lose her. He hides her in memories she was never part of, and the procedure stalls until Lacuna's founder, Dr Howard Mierzwiak, comes to finish it. In the last memory left, the day they first met at Montauk, Clementine tells him to meet her there.
In the apartment Mary tells Howard she loves him and kisses him. His wife arrives and reveals that the two have had an affair before, and that Mary had it erased. Mary quits and mails every patient their records. So Joel and Clementine, newly met again, hear together the tapes in which each described the other with contempt. Clementine walks out, and Joel follows her. She warns him it will happen again, that they will hurt each other. He says, 'Okay.' The last image is the two of them running on a snowy beach.
Starring
Jim Carreyas Joel Barish
A shy, bookish man who has Clementine erased from his memory, then fights to keep her while it is happening.
Joel Barish’s story
Joel writes more in his journal than he says aloud. After two years with Clementine and a bad fight, he takes a present to her bookshop, and she treats him like a stranger: Lacuna has erased him from her memory. Hurt, he books the same procedure and records a tape of his grievances. Asleep, he watches their time together run backwards from the last fight to the first days, and decides he wants to keep her. He hides her in childhood memories until Howard comes to finish the job. In the last memory, on the beach at Montauk, she tells him to meet her there. Next morning he skips work, goes to Montauk and meets her again. When the tapes arrive and she walks out, he follows, hears that they will hurt each other again, and says, 'Okay.'
Kate Winsletas Clementine Kruczynski
An impulsive, outspoken woman who, after a fight, has every memory of Joel erased.
Clementine Kruczynski’s story
Clementine is a free spirit whose hair changes colour with her moods. After two years with Joel and worsening fights, she has every memory of him erased, and when he brings a present to her bookshop she treats him as a stranger. Soon she is seeing Patrick, who courts her with Joel's gifts and lines. In Joel's head, the Clementine he remembers helps him hide her, and in the last memory, at Montauk where they met, asks him to meet her there. On Valentine's Day she is at Montauk, and on the train home she starts talking to Joel. Then Mary's mailing brings back the tapes. She hears what each once said about the other and walks out. When Joel follows, she warns him they will hurt each other again; he says 'Okay', and they agree to try.
Kirsten Dunstas Mary Svevo
Lacuna's receptionist, infatuated with its founder, who discovers what the company once took from her.
Mary Svevo’s story
Mary is going out with Stan, one of Lacuna's technicians, and cannot hide how much she admires Howard and his work. On the night of Joel's procedure she joins Stan in Joel's apartment, and they smoke cannabis and party while Joel sleeps. When Howard comes to rescue the job, she recites Alexander Pope to him, tells him she loves him and kisses him. His wife, who has seen them through the window, makes him tell Mary the truth: they have had an affair before, and Mary had it erased. Mary listens to her own tape and hears herself talk about it. She quits, takes the company's records and mails every patient their file and tape, Joel and Clementine among them.
Mark Ruffaloas Stan Fink
The Lacuna technician who erases Joel's memories overnight while dating Mary.
Elijah Woodas Patrick Wertz
A young technician who uses Joel's erased memories to court Clementine.
Tom Wilkinsonas Dr Howard Mierzwiak
Lacuna's founder, who created the procedure and has used it to bury a secret of his own.
Why it matters
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind takes a wish almost everyone has made after a breakup, that the memory could simply be removed, and shows what it would cost. Joel's memories disappear from the most bitter to the happiest, so the procedure meant to free him walks him backwards into the reasons he loved Clementine at all. Around the lovers runs a quieter story about consent and power: a young receptionist who learns she once had an affair with her boss and had the memory wiped at his clinic. Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Kate Winslet was nominated for Best Actress. The ending offers no cure. Two people who have heard exactly what they will come to hate in each other choose to try again, and the film leaves open whether that is wisdom or the same mistake.