(Don't Go Back to) Rockville Center

Revisiting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Five years ago, a relatively un-manic Jim Carrey and a charming-as-she's-ever-been (and that's saying a lot) Kate Winslet met on a beach in Montauk, fell in love, and then, when they outgrew each other, they decided to have the entire experience erased from their respective memories. They each hired a dubious doctor and his band of unkempt technicians to systematically delete their remembrance of the other. Rather than suffer through the end of their love, they decided, simply, to obliterate all traces of its existence.

Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is quite possibly the most endearing, enduring, heart-breaking romance ever made.¹ It was my favorite film of 2004, and since nothing better came along the following year, I consider it my favorite film of 2005. And then 2006, and 2007. It's held that spot now for so long that I decided it was long overdue that I watch it again.

I didn't go into this lightly: the first (the only) time that I watched the film, in 2004, I sobbed till I was nearly ejected from the theatre, and I wound up physically ill for a week. I'm sure that owes in part to some over-sentimentality of mine, and also a fairly unique sinus condition that makes sobbing somewhat hazardous to my health.

In any case: not your average chick-flick, this.

I longed to revisit "Joel" and "Clementine" on the wintry beaches of Montauk, but I was nervous to do so.

On the night that I cued up the film, I huddled in my bed, wrapped myself in a new quilt that's become my erstwhile adult security blanket, dimmed the lights, pressed "Play", and braced myself for the ride.

It was better than I remembered. Sad, sure; but sweeter, funnier, happier. Hopeful. Hopeful.

My favorite film of 2008.²

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1. Eternal Sunshine is generally known as "Charlie Kaufman's movie"—Kaufman having written the script—while we might or might not remember the film's director (Michel Gondry). That might be a first: screenwriters are usually household names only in households where Daily Variety is read over morning coffee.

2. I did sob, again. And yes, I am sick, again.