David Wilder - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This was actually the second time I've seen this movie. In all actuality, the first time I saw it I didn't enjoy it very much, neither did I pick up on many of the existential points made in it. However, this time I understood more of it and grasped the plot better, and I didn't mind it so much. Fate vs free will certainly seemed to be at each other's throats throughout the whole movie. It was difficult to pull the two together at times in fact. Joel and Clem had their relationship and it turned sour. They erased the other from their memories, met, and started a relationship. Within the movie, the doctors represent fate, a controlling aspect. They make sure things go as expected, as they've been planned out, and according to the map. However, despite their influence, the patients still try to hold onto their connections from their previous lives. Joel and Clem reunite. Even Mary, who had her love for the doctor erased, fell in love with him again. But is this true free will? Surely she isn't following the fate the doctors had planned for her. The final scene of the movie was incredibly powerful for me. Joel and Clem walk across the snow filled beach. The snow could represent a purity, a new start, clean slate. However, my point is in the reoccurrence of the scene. After the two pass out of sight, the scene restarts and they once again cross the beach. It implies to me that the two grow tired of each other, have each other erased, and for a third time begin a relationship, hence the "eternal" sunshine. But if they continue in this supposedly chosen loop of circumstance, aren't they still fated? They are fated to remain in this constant unfullfilling cycle. They will forget and meet, forget and meet, without escape and without a doubt. Their actions and fate appear to be sealed. Just like how Mary will continue to fall in love with the doctor. She's fated to.