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Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind
Director: Michel Gondry (2004)
Distributor: Momentum Theatrical. Certificate: 15
Spoiler notice: If you read on will become aware
of how the film ends.
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Main Characters:
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What if you have been in a painful relationship and want to forget someone completely? Easy: just submit yourself to a brand new process that can erase a person from your memories for ever.
Now imagine that you haven’t submitted yourself to this process, but your
ex-girlfriend has, and she doesn’t know who you are the next time she sees
you.
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That is the predicament that Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) finds himself in with his ex, Clementine Bruczynski (Kate Winslet). On the rebound, Joel decides to go through the same procedure, but halfway through he realises he still loves her and doesn’t want to forget her. |
The trouble is, he is unconscious and the process has already started. One by one, he is reliving all his memories of Clementine in his brain and she is disappearing from each one of them. He cannot stop the procedure as he cannot communicate to those who are working on him. The only answer is to hide Clementine away in a memory where she doesn’t belong…
THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
Some key themes: Wiping the past clean; love persists through adversity
This film is going to stay with me for quite a while. It was like watching a puzzle, or an onion with various layers unfolding before my eyes. Ironic that a film that deals with an unconscious person’s brain activity was stimulating my brain while I was watching it!
The title comes from “Eloisa to Abelard”, a poem by Alexander Pope. Here is the relevant verse:
“How happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sun-shine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resigned.”
He was writing about a woman who is pure and blameless in the eyes of God, and so, according to Alexander Pope, has her prayers accepted.
Some people say that a person is only the sum of his or her memories. I’m not sure I entirely agree with this, but what if all of the painful, sinful or “bad” memories can be erased.
In the film, Dr Howard promises Joel that after the process “a new life awaits you”. Mary, in talking of Dr Howard’s work, says that he “lets people begin again”.
Sounds like some of the promises in the Bible. God says (in Psalm 103 v 12) that if we accept his forgiveness, then as far as the east is from the west he has removed our sins from us – and “as far as the east if from the west” is a pretty long way! The Apostle Paul says (in 2 Corinthians 5 v 17) that people who accept Christ become new creatures. And God says (in Isaiah 1 v 18) that though our sins are like scarlet, they can be as white as snow (or spotless, as in “spotless mind”).
The trouble is that in the film the process doesn’t entirely work. Joel still has faint memories of Clementine, and Clementine still vaguely remembers Joel. It is the same when we ask for God’s forgiveness. Yes, we are forgiven, but we still have the memories of some of the bad things we have done. I know I do, and though I am forgiven in the eyes of God, I still regret some of the times I have hurt people by my words or actions.
Yes, when we are Christians we have become new creatures in Christ, but we are still living in our old bodies. Yes, God deliberately forgets our sins “as far as the east is from the west”, but we can’t forget. And yes, we can be as white as snow, but snow often covers up dirty pavements or patches of mud. A well-known Christian song says that God covers us over “with a robe of righteousness” - but there’s still all that stuff we don’t like that’s hiding underneath the robe; it doesn’t disappear, it’s just covered over.
Maybe that’s what happens in this life (feel free to disagree with me!), but will the story be different in heaven? Have a dig around in the Book of Revelation, chapter 7, and see what you find. Have a look in other parts of the Bible that talk about heaven.
One thing I do know: just like the love between Joel and Clementine didn’t
disappear, even after a supposedly foolproof process, so God’s love for us
is persistent and never gives up.
Have your say on the discussion forum....
Are there any incidents, or people, in your life that you would want to completely erase from your memory if it was possible?
What does it mean to be forgiven by God? Do we still have to live with – and pay the consequences for - some of the bad things we have done?
The writer, Alexander Pope, suggested that God answers all the prayers
of the blameless? What about people like me who don’t feel blameless and
still
struggle with issues in life – does God answer my prayers as well?
To discuss this further why not leave a message of the discussion forum.
