Eternal Sunshine

(I'm going to talk about the film so if you haven't watched it, hate knowing stuff before watching a film, don't read on.)
If you want to know why the lengthy title, watch the film. it is a true poignant moment that it is revealed. i've watched so many films this year... recent ones including Gus van Sant's Elephant, Dogville, Zatoichi... the list is longer but i can't be bothered to remember it and i've been fairly lazy blogging bout the films. but this has got to be the first that has exceeded my expectations.

Right from the opening shot of Jim Carrey's face, to the cut across to his hanging wind-chime (is it?) on his blue melancholic windows, mirrored even in the solitary yet romantic piano solo in the soundtrack, just made me instantly knew that i was going to enjoy this film. and i certainly did. (in spite of one helluva headache) i'm one to dislike romantic comedies, but ever so occasionally, some romantic comedies just strike the right note. and i wouldn't degrade this film to even say it belonged to the romantic comedy genre. but it is, ultimately, a romantic film. not by mainstream definitions, definitely. the central reason for my intense cynicism for romantic comedies is the fairy-tale fall-in-love trials and tribulations which sometimes, fair enough, film-makers try to integrate some honesty. but mostly, you don't see the after-story. what happens after cinderella's prince marries her? He trots off into the forest and discovers sleeping beauty, has an affair in another faraway kingdom, comes back to his wife, starts getting grumpy. issues rise, and in our ever-so-modern context, would likely lead to divorce... and just 20% of a population leading such lives would indicate the social stratification we are subjected to everyday. and divorce rates are not just 20% trust me.

that's why i hate it when they try to present an all-sweet, goose-bump raising, pretentious romantic comedy. because that's just not what happens in real life. what happens in reel life serves to fulfill that desire in us to see the fairy story come true. to find that true love. to overcome all obstacles. and i dont have anything against feeding that hopeless romantic in us sometimes, of course. but that is never the solution.

what Eternal Sunshine offers, on the other hand, is honest romance, based on the nitty grittiness of life. of relationships. having a long term relationship with someone is not something all pretty and sweet. that usually lasts the first 6 months, if you're lucky. three months or less, if you're unlucky. Eternal's portrait of Joel and Clementine (yes, i know, what a name isn't it. but it's orange and because it's orange, it has to be lovely) is a startingly accurate depiction of the level of intimacy a real relationship possesses. such that when you try to erase the memories associated with it, you'd feel that a part of your life is lost. can you imagine permanently erasing it, then? the thought is inconceivable. the memories of a soul is what defines a soul. extinguishing it is extinguishing yourself. even if they are bad, bittersweet memories, they are your memories. it wouldn't make you, you, if you didn't have them.

the couple and all their idiosyncracies are unabashedly revealed to us. just as in a true relationship you reveal all that's both ugly and pretty inside you. when the film closes in a cyclical fashion, it brilliantly links you back to the opening sequences which you don't expect. it seamlessly weaves in and out of the deceivingly disorganized (but actually really ingenious) editing of shots as the film progress. the best part is there is no happy ending. well, not outright. not with popping champagne, bells ringing, people clapping, lips locking, does it end. it ends with the simple ordinariness that strikes right to the core, makes you sit up, and go, yes! that's it! that's how it is in life! why romanticise it needlessly?
they make to leave, but wait and realise, the memories are not something they can erase with a simple procedure. neither the place they occupy in each other's lives. they talk about their problems. well, okay, i think i can live with that. i can try to live with you. in your entirety.
and that is exactly what i'm talking about when i'm talking about the flaw in most romantic comedies. they don't talk about the things that couples have to live with for the rest of their lives. the moment the film ends, their fantasy, no make it our fantasy, is evaporated.

Joel and Clementine run along in the snow in the ending shots of the film... they run, they are happy. but most of all, the film impresses on us, just like how the snow envelopes and encompasses them, that no relationship is without problem or pain. they are like you and me. a realistic couple on earth. it doesn't offer an immediate solution. but it teaches us the beauty of memory. it reminds us of the beautiful times that come hand in hand.

Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.

The film ironically challenges the very mantra it establishes in its diegesis. It's not a perfect film, of course, if the concept of one even exists. But it has certainly rejuvanted the definitions of the romantic comedy genre. wait, it's not romantic comedy, really. it's offbeat romance. and rightly so.