\n<\/p>\n
They say the only cure for heartbreak is time, although a lobotomy might be more effective. It\u2019s a thorny conceit that Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) tested out for our pleasure in \u201cEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind\u201d<\/a> by erasing memories of her ex-boyfriend, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey). Michel Gondry\u2019s surreal love story stunned audiences in 2004 and remains hard to forget 20 years later.<\/p>\n Like all painful breakups, \u201cEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind\u201d has lingered in the consciousness long after the love story\u2019s expiration date. The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman \u2014 who was fresh off the critical double-hitters \u201cBeing John Malkovich\u201d and \u201cAdaptation\u201d \u2014 wrote Clementine and Joel\u2019s love affair as a claustrophobic, unspooling maze that earned the movie an Oscar for best screenplay. Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo were knocking on stardom\u2019s door when they gave delightful supporting performances as haphazard assistants of the memory-erasing company Lacuna Inc. The movie was one of a handful of romantic comedies from its decade (including <\/em>\u201cLost in Translation\u201d and \u201c(500) Days of Summer\u201d) that redefined what it meant to be both misunderstood and in love; in this cinematic landscape, love interests didn\u2019t end up happily ever after. What they gave instead was the idea that maybe a love lost isn\u2019t necessarily a net loss.<\/p>\n As Clementine, an erratic and compulsive bookstore clerk, Winslet gives a career-redefining performance. Today, her idiosyncratic character lives on TikTok<\/a> and Tumblr<\/a> as a patron saint of women who are paradoxically lovable and terrifying. (\u201cI apply my personality as a paste,\u201d she says of her hair dye, aptly titled Blue Ruin.) Her legacy stands in the pantheon of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, a fast-talking screwball woman who protests, \u201cToo many guys see me as a concept.\u201d Most of all, she loves her own despair \u2014 if the film had come out today, it would be easy to imagine her posting about Prozac, stomach aches and Ottessa Moshfegh novels.<\/p>\n And as Joel, Carrey remains an avatar for frustratingly plain and tightly wound men. After Joel discovers that Clementine has zapped him and their relationship thanks to Lacuna Inc., he decides to do the same. (In a contemporary parallel, I have blocked someone on Instagram to regain a sense of control, only to discover the psychic torture persists.) Together, they tumble through Joel\u2019s tangled and chimeric subconscious in quotidian montages of early bliss and innocent flirtations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Along the way, Joel realizes he\u2019d rather have all of Clementine, heartbreak included, than none of her. He desperately tries to salvage the memories as they\u2019re deleted, trapping himself in a maze of his own psyche. The film spins out of control, traversing realities and timelines, until we are left with a teary-eyed Clementine and Joel, who acknowledge the futility of their relationship. \u201cI\u2019ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that\u2019s what happens with me,\u201d asserts Clementine. \u201cOK,\u201d Joel says with a smirk and then agrees to try again, despite knowing the inevitable disaster of their attraction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an emotional core to each of our memories, and when you eradicate that core, it starts its degradation process,\u201d explains Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) to Joel as he mulls over the procedure. It\u2019s an intoxicating premise that Joel is understandably seduced by. Today, it seems ever-present to compartmentalize and optimize past our pain, a compulsion enabled and compounded by tech. (Think of the pang you feel when the iPhone Memories feature unceremoniously confronts you with a photo of someone you loved who is now a stranger.) Our need for connection has never been greater, yet our lives are scattered across screens. And everything, in turn, has become devoid of emotional risk.<\/p>\n Brain damage as the antidote to love is an ambitious movie premise, but the film\u2019s uncanny truths have proved timeless. We live in lonely times, and Joel serves as an Everyman for our current lovesickness. In a dating culture preoccupied with \u201clooksmaxxing\u201d<\/a> on apps like Hinge and Tinder, finding love can often feel like a hollow science fiction plot not far from Lacuna Inc. We are taught by online therapists, and smiling pop stars on Instagram and YouTube, to watch out for gaslighting, love-bombing and other red flags in potential partners. It\u2019s become easier to pathologize ourselves and our histories in isolation than to allow ourselves to be seen.<\/p>\n It\u2019s refreshing then to watch Joel and Clementine\u2019s relationship play out \u2014 each character is littered with crimson flags and emotional baggage. Sure, Clementine is erratic and a liability, a problem unto herself for which there is no solution. But it\u2019s also these qualities that make her mesmerizing and irresistible to Joel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI can\u2019t see anything that I don\u2019t like about you,\u201d Joel says pleadingly to Clementine to get her to stay. \u201cBut you will,\u201d she roars knowingly. It\u2019s that last scene \u2014 when Joel meets Clementine and they accept each other as their strangest and most frustrating selves \u2014 that makes their love so compelling to watch over and over again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n