Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Oh my darling, oh my darling,

Oh my darling, Clementine!

Thou art lost and gone forever

Dreadful sorry, Clementine

After 8 years of completely avoiding this movie, I finally got around to watching it in July 2012. This was 108 minutes of time well spent. For good reasons, I am reminded of this movie today and I decided to get down to writing about it. 

Kate Winslet plays Clementine and Jim Carrey plays Joel. Clementine and Joel are lovers who spend two years together, and then they break up. They are very different from each other, and this contributes to the break up. Clementine then decides to erase all of Joel’s memories, and becomes Joel-free so to speak. Joel decides to do the same to become Clementine-free. The movie is from his perspective and shows how he struggles to hold on to her memories. He tries to hide their important memories within other memories, and realizes that he has much more control over his memories than any machine ever can.

The attendant in the clinic (Elijah Wood) is incidentally dating Clementine when he views Joel’s memories, and proceeds to interact with her in the same manner as Joel had once done – he has her case history and enough evidence to know how Joel behaved and what Clementine liked about Joel. Clementine gets confused repeatedly, and doesn’t know why.

I am not getting into the plot with Kirsten Dunst – it is an interesting twist. Watch the movie to see how it ends. The Yokefellow thinks happy endings are meant for movies, and I am at the opposite end of the spectrum where I believe in happy endings.

Winslet’s acting is a class act and she received an Academy award nomination for her performance. The striking colours of her hair, her dialogue delivery and her body language are fantastic. The movie makes use of Bollywood music, and the song “Everyone's gonna learn sometime” is nice.

Some thoughts as I watched the movie.

If we are expected to hold on to memories of love long gone, we lose the perspective that it perhaps makes sense to obliterate (a strong word) those memories in order to move on. If we spend time in seeking the friendship of old lovers and maintaining those friendships, then we’d never give our new lovers a chance. We'd not give love a chance.

Imagine if someone were to tell you the stuff that you wanted to hear, somewhere deep within, and it is not because he/ she is supremely understanding of you. It is because he/ she has got to ‘know’ you in a roundabout manner, and already knows what matters to you, what your pet peeves are. He/ she doesn’t ever tell you that he/ she ‘knows’ you. Would you feel cheated? Would you feel flattered? Would you question the authenticity of the friendship / relationship / whatever you wish to call it?

The movie also made me think of the beauty of companionship. Some get obsessed with the idea and repeatedly seek company in order to be with someone all the time. There are others who move away from the idea when their companion leaves them.

I leave you with this.

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;

Avatar (2009). Imagination meets patience meets technology.

Who remains king? The story!



I was a teenager when Titanic was released in India in March 1998. There was sufficient buzz generated by the movie (released in the US in December 1997), and I went to the theatre to do advance booking of tickets. The plan was to watch the movie with two classmates from school, and the sibling. I was very disappointed on seeing the ‘Houseful’ sign on my arrival, and the serpentine queues. I had school the next day, and the plan to buy tickets had to be postponed.

My mother got me the tickets when I was away in school.

The movie meant so much to me that I frowned at my giggly classmate. Coming to think of it, I even remember the scene – she was laughing when the cutlery was falling off the shelves, and I couldn’t fathom what was making her laugh.

I read and re-read the 12th Std. English lesson on the sinking ship; in a case of perfect timing, NCERT’s lesson was available. I borrowed the OST audio cassette from another classmate. I made a scrapbook containing every news article I could find, every picture I could obtain. I bought a poster and saved it for over a year before it found a place of honour in my room in Mumbai. I spoke of management lessons to be learnt from the sinking of this ship in the first formal presentation I had to make at b-school.

A dozen years post Titanic, Caprio and Winslet are counted among the best performers in Hollywood. I have changed in my own way.

When Avatar was released last month, I knew that this was going to be a solo watch. I decided to watch it when my parents were travelling. I had been warned to keep my expectations in check for the story reportedly had nothing new to offer, and I entered the theatre not knowing what to expect. What I was curious to see was the revamped theatre – it left me disappointed with its colour scheme (with lots of gold) and layout.

I got bored with the predictable start and the monotonous dialogues. By the interval, something unexpected happened. The bridge of my nose started hurting with the plastic glasses, and I had to hold them at a distance.

I had also started liking Navis, and their world set in Pandora. I am happy that Cameron waited for technology to be ready to capture what he had in mind – the stunning visuals make the movie-watching experience worthwhile.