About the Movie...
The movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 movie directed by Michel Gondry
and written by Charlie Kaufman. It is an American, romantic, science fiction film. It stars Kate
Winslet and Jim Carrey as the main protagonists. The movie consists of an ensemble cast also
starring Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood and Tom Wilkinson.
“How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;”
The movie opens showing a confused Joel (Carrey) waking up on his bed with no idea of how
his apartment is in such a mess. He goes for this work as usual, and decides to take the train to
his work, but instead misses that train and decides to go to Montauk, still confused why.
Throughout his journey, he is shown to be very confused. As he is travelling in the train, it is
shown that he maintains a journal which he fills every day, but that day he realizes that some of
the pages from his journal is missing. As he is trying to understand the situation and fill his
journal, he encounters Clementine (Winslet). Clementine is shown as girl who often changes
her hair color and is dressed hastily. (“Clementine Kruczynski: I'm just a messed-up girl looking
for my own piece of mind, I'm not perfect.”) Joel is weirdly attracted to Clementine, because of
her impulsivity and charm. Clem keeps talking to Joel. Joel, though interested, does not engage
in a lot of conversation. (“Clementine Kruczynski: I'm gonna marry you... I know it! Joel Barish:
Erm... Okay.”) As the movie proceeds, it is shown that Joel and Clemetine have had previously
dated, and have met before on the beach in Montauk, when Joel was still dating his
ex-girlfriend. Now in the backstory- Joel and Clementine form an instant connection and start
dating. (“Clementine Kruczynski: Hi, I'm Clementine, can I have a piece of chicken? Joel Barish:
Then you just took it. It was so intimate. It was like we were already lovers.”) On Valentine’s Day
eve, he goes to the bookstore where Clem works and is astonished and confused after finding
out that Clementine does not recognize him and has a new, much younger boyfriend, who calls
her Tangerine. Later it is shown that Joel gets to know from his friend that Clem had gone to one
Lacuna clinic where the doctors (Ruffalo) practice ECT to make people selectively forget an
emotional memory by creating a map of everything that the person (who wants to forget) of the
other person, then tracing that map in the brain, and erasing the trace. This happens in the
house of the person, while the person is sleeping. Joel is administered a pill and then he goes
off to sleep. The pill is considered to be a beta-blocker. The people from the clinic then enter
Joel’s apartment with all the apparatus required for the procedure and start with the process,
while Joel is fast asleep. The entire movie revolves around the memories Joel has of
Clementine and the entirety of their relationship. Through his lens, we can see that Clementine
is a ray of sunshine, full of life, but at the same time, extremely impulsive. Her mood shifts
between two extremes. Joel on the other hand is shown as a quiet, conserved man, who likes
routine and familiarity. It is later seen that their polar opposite personalities are the reason why
their relationship did not work out and led to the current process where they want to forget each
other. As the process continues, Joel realizes that he does not want to forget everything about
Clem as there are some really good memories that he has of him. While the process is going on
it is shown that Mary (Dunst) and Stan (Ruffalo) are looking for food and liquor in Joel’s
apartment, without his permission, which brings into light the questions of ethics of this
procedure. Soon, due to the disturbance, the now lightly asleep Joel tries to change the traces of Clementine in his memory, hiding her in different places of his memory, which is not present in
the map, in an attempt to save her from getting erased from his memory. This disruption leads to
Stan calling the superior doctor dr. Mierzwiak. When the doctor arrives, he is able to bring the
procedure back on track. While the treatment is going on, Mierzwiak leaves the apartment and
Mary follows him. When she tries to get closer to Mierzwiak, his wife pulls over and watches
this. Mary tries to explain, but finds out that she too, had gone through the procedure of the
Lacuna treatment to erase her memories with Mierzwiak. Shocked and angry, she realizes that
the procedure does not actually work, and in the end the actual emotions always resurfaces and
triumphs over technology. The next day she leaves her job in the clinic and mails every one of
the clients their files and CDs.
Present day
Now to present day, Joel drives Clementine to her home, reaching where she decides she
wants to spend the night at Joel, a decision she takes impulsively. She does not bother about
her current partner, and just decides to leave her flat. Before leaving, she takes her toothbrush
and mail. In her mail, she finds a CD, she plays it in Joel’s car recorder. In the CD, she is heard
saying many negative things about Joel. Highly confused and now furious, Joel demands
Clementine to get off the car. When Joel reaches his apartment, he finds a similar CD, and then
makes sense of what has happened. He regrets his decision.
Back to last night, as Joel is failing to protect memories of Clementine getting erased, it is
shown in the end, that Clem whispers in Joel’s ear to meet her in the beach in Montauk, the
place where they first met. (“Clementine Kruczynski: Meet me in Montauk....”)
End of the Movie
In the end of the movie, it is shown that Clementine and Joel reconnect, and acknowledge each other’s pros and cons.
“Joel Barish: I can't see anything I don't like about you.
Clementine Kruczynski: But you will, you will think of things and I'll get bored with you and feel
trapped because that's what happens with me.
Joel Barish: Okay.
Clementine Kruczynski: Okay”
History Of Clementine
Clementine is a girl in her late 20s. She thinks that her name is derived from the song Oh my
darling Clementine, and thus she says this to everyone the instant she meets them. She has
previously been in many relationships, but none of them worked in the long-term because of
difference in expectations from both sides. From the outside, she seems like a dream, extremely
charming, jolly and gorgeous, but the actual truth can be seen as the story progresses that she
is a girl who is “mentally messed-up and just wants her peace of mind. One thing which can be
noticed about her is that she associates her personality with her hair color and thus tends to
change her hair color a lot (blue, tangerine etc.). She is shown to be extremely impulsive, not
thinking even once about the consequences of her actions, which a lot of her previous partners
have associated with the beautiful concept of “living in the moment.”
Psychological Phenomena
With her impulsive nature, extreme mood changes, severe dependence on alcohol, short-lasting Unstable relationships, reckless behavior and demeaning comments on Joel, according to a lot of critics and psychologists who have studied the movie, she seems to exhibit the traits
borderline personality disorder, although in the movie, no such diagnosis is specifically made.
According of DSM 5, 301.83 (F60.3), the diagnostic features of BPD include a pervasive pattern
of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity,
mostly beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. A pattern of unstable
and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of
idealization and devaluation, which Clementine clearly showcases through her actions. People
having a borderline personality might have suicidal intentions, which can be seen in Clementine
when she literally enters and walks on thin ice, without fearing that it might break. Their
impulsivity can be self-damaging and they showcase extreme mood reactivity. They can also
have intense, sudden burst of emotions like happiness, anger and crying. The character of
Clementine also showcases dissociative symptoms.
The critical characteristic of borderline persona ailment is a pervasive sample of instability of
interpersonal relationships, self-picture, and affects, and marked impulsivity that begins
Individuals with borderline persona ailment make frantic efforts to keep away from actual or
imagined abandonment (Criterion 1). or the lack of outside structure, can cause profound
modifications in self-picture, affect, cognition, experience excessive abandonment fears and
beside the point anger even if confronted with a actual efforts to keep away from abandonment
may also encompass impulsive movements inclusive of self-mutilating or suicidal behaviors,
which might be defined one at a time in Criterion 5. Individuals with borderline persona ailment
have a sample of risky and excessive These people can empathize with and nurture different
human beings, such shifts frequently mirror disillusionment with a caregiver whose nurturing
traits had been idealized or whose rejection or abandonment is expected. There are unexpected
and dramatic shifts in self picture this is primarily based totally on being horrific or evil, people
with this ailment may also at instances have the man or woman feels a loss of a significant
relationship, nurturing, and support.
Individuals with borderline persona ailment show impulsivity in as a minimum area which can be doubtlessly self-damaging (Criterion 4). with this ailment show recurrent suicidal behavior,
gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior (Criterion 5). self-mutilative acts (e. g., slicing or
burning) and suicide threats and tries are very Recurrent suicidality is frequently the cause that
those people gift for assist. These self-unfavorable acts are typically brought about with the aid
of using threats of separation or rejection or with the aid of using expectancies that the man or woman assumes expanded responsibility. arise at some point of dissociative studies and
frequently brings alleviation with the aid of using reaffirming the cap potential to sense or with
the aid of using expiating the man or woman's experience of being evil. Individuals with
borderline persona ailment may also show affective instability that typically lasting some hours
and simplest hardly ever a number days) (Criterion 6) fundamental dysphoric temper of these
with borderline persona ailment is frequently disrupted with the aid of using durations of anger,
panic, or melancholy and is hardly ever relieved with the aid of using durations of wellbeing.
These episodes may also mirror the man or woman's severe reactivity to interpersonal
Individuals with borderline persona ailment can be bothered with the aid of using continual
sense Individuals with this ailment regularly explicit beside the point, excessive anger or have
difficulty controlling their anger (Criterion 8).
The character of Clementine visibly showcases majority of these criteria.
Critical Analysis
This movie is like a shot of expresso on a sunny day. Each character is brilliantly portrayed by
the respective actors. Oscar winning actress Kate Winslet brilliantly portrays the beauty an flaw
of Clemetine. She is successfully able to enter the mind of Clementine and give us a character
we can associate to. Jim Carrey, who although mostly portrays comedic characters, is
wonderfully able to bring into light the conservative, confused, routine-liking Joel, who has his
own mental battles. The writer and director do a great job to bring this whole new world (this
movie) to life. Even though, this movie does an amazing work in most of the aspects, there are
certain things which needs to be critically looked at. In the movie, it is shown that the doctors in
Lacuna use ECT and beta blockers to do the forgetting procedure. The movie tries to explain
their use, but if we look at this prospect from a pathological point of view, ECT is used for
patients with severe mental abnormality. The electric shocks induce mild seizures in the patient,
thus helping with the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It helps in bringing some
balance to the moods of people who showcase extreme mood reactivity. Side effect of ECT
might lead to memory loss, but no study supports that it particularly effects the hippocampus,
thus helping in memory loss.
The same can be said for the role of beta-blockers, which helps in blocking the effect of
adrenaline and thus slowing down the heart and helping the person to calm down. It has no
clear effect on sleeping.
The treatment plan has not been shared in the movie, but the basic treatment plan for patients
having borderline personality disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy, anti-depressants, and in
severe cases, low doses of medications used for bipolar disorder.
Concluding, this report tries to explain the role BPD plays in the female protagonist, and hints
towards the presence of depression, avoidant personality and anxiety in the male protagonist.
Conclusion:
Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind doesn't exactly revolve around psychological abnormality. But it's very well intricated with the theme, which is on a broad spectrum, love. This is one movie, which covers everything that a possible social being wants to, can and cannot control.
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