Quality of Life

Song Lyric of the Day:



Hope got me started. / Put you to the centre, so it seemed. / Don’t you hurry ’cause you’ll reach your goals, is what it reads.



Paul Oakenfold / “Time of Your Life”

10:57PM.

After a typically wonderful dinner at 3 Amigos Mexican Restaurant, Rich and I came home to watch “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” In a word–awesome.

Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) have just broken up after two years together. Upon finding out that Clementine went to Lacuna, Inc. and had all memories of Joel and their relationship erased, Joel decides to do the same. However, in the midst of his overnight erasure procedure, a sleeping Joel decides he doesn’t want to have his memories of Clementine erased after all. Director Michel Gondry has created a wonderfully fluid world in which memories of Joel and Clementine reside. The art direction is nothing short of brilliant in how Joel’s struggle to retain his memories are depicted; I’m particularly fond of Joel’s memory as a 4-year old boy. As memories are erased, backgrounds disappear, scenery shifts, objects become indistinct, and Clementine becomes a fleeting thread through all of it. As is to be expected, the script by Charlie Kaufman centers completely on the psyche. Jim Carrey is fantastic as Joel, and never once does his performance seem fake. His sad eyes reflect his inner turmoil, not only the pain of his breakup, but the pain of deciding he no longer wants to remember any of his life with Clementine. Kate Winslet is the perfect yin to Jim Carrey’s yang in that her Clementine is such a vibrant, passionate woman who does her best to get the shy, retiring Joel to open up and live life to its fullest. And for a while, he does.

Even if you don’t like or fully appreciate the fantastical world inside Joel’s memory, this movie is bound to make you think. As you watch Joel and Clementine trying to literally outrun their rapidly disappearing surroundings, you can’t help but wonder, “What if?” What if we could selectively choose which memories and experiences to keep or forget? Would we be who we are today? Is it right to want to forget painful memories and experiences? Would life be easier if we chose to forget those we’d loved and lost, those who broke our hearts, those who knew how to hurt us best? Or is it better to keep all memories, good and bad? We are the sum of our parts, and everything we experience shapes who we are. Not only does it shape who we are as individuals, it shapes those we interact with and how they interact with us. It’s what makes those we love love us back.

Such it was for Joel and Clementine. The same as it is for all of us.

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d. — Alexander Pope

2:02PM.

Rich and I are going to donate to the tsunami relief efforts. If you would like to help, check out the list of organizations to which you can donate at the Network for Good’s website.



We’ve never really volunteered for anything, even though we’ve talked about it, so this is the least we can do to help others. I can’t even imagine what the survivors are going through as they deal with not only the loss of their loved ones, but with the loss of their homes and worldly goods. I just know that I will keep them in my prayers, as I have since December 26.

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One Response to Quality of Life

  1. Anonymous

    Eternal Sunshine is A+. As is Garden State. Probably my top two movies over the past couple of years. The last flicks that affected me that much were American Beauty and Good Will Hunting. Your reviews are coming along great. I still need to see Monsoon Wedding, but I’m not sure southwest VA carries excellent movies outside of the standard norm.

    Ern

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