Anna Backens - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This movie was difficult to sort out reality from memory or fantasy in the beginning because glimpses were shown of the life of Joel Barish's in random order. Joel and Clementine's relationship had many unstable tendencies. I think, many of the conflicts they endured was due to the great difference in their personalities. Joel longed to know more about life and Clementine was more free-spirited who seemed more cynical about her misfortune. I thought about the idea of fighting one's fate in this movie. Especially during the scenes when Joel is getting his memory erased and he wakes up at his apartment during the procedure. While wakes up and sees his memories being erased and starts remembering all the special and good moments that he had with Clementine. This is the moment when Joel realizes that he wants to fight his fate but also knows that he can't change it because he is only awake inside of his mind. This reminded me the scene where Adrian Brody is locked inside his straight jacket and sees his future and knows his fate but cannot physically change it. The mind in these two films becomes a place of escape but also I thought the movie showed the mind being a place of imprisonment as well. Once these two characters had a realization of their fate inside their mind, it then became a prison for them. What I liked about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was that Joel was able to change during the movie. It seemed that he grew up and realized the worth in life and the reward for change for him was to try again with Clementine. The ending showed hope for the ones that want to change.