This either speaks to the strength of love or the seeming human inability to remain alone.
It’s both/and, not either/or.
She thought it was the most romantic film she's ever seen -- the characters willing to go through hell once more in order to be with one another. I'm not sure I can relate to that. It seems like such a horrible waste, and not romantic at all, just weak.
It’s both/and, not either/or.
I took the ending as more hopeful, that they were accepting each other fully and were going to work on things, whereas she found it more negative and depressing, thinking it meant we all just get locked in unhealthy patterns and relationships that don't work and we're doomed to repeat the cycle.
It’s both/and, not either/or.
This is another reason I think this movie was so darn good: I thought they were going to break up eventually, and I considered that a happy though bittersweet ending. Some people think they'll break up eventually, and considered that very depressing. Others are sure they'll work it out.
It’s both/and, not either/or.
Wow. Got stuck in a loop for a second there. Sorry to repeat myself.  I thought it was a point worth making, and the movie’s central premise. I’m extremely glad that the film ended the way it did rather than explicitly stating the couple’s future via repeated memory wipes. Kaufman and Gondry left it uncertain. All we need to know is that for the time being, they’re going to try again. And maybe again. And maybe again after that.
My favourite scene is the one with the bird and the hammer. Joel was right in a way: Clementine does save him (in this scene, at least). Or rather, the model of Clementine that exists in his head saves him, because that model has been designed with the belief that she will save him. The movie both celebrates and rubbishes the way we idealise people and project our wonderful/impoverished versions of reality onto them. Because really we have no choice but to project, we can only know the world through the version of it we create in our minds.
When Joel and Clem meet for the 2nd time, but the first time in the film -- that is, when she talks to him on the train -- does he have absolutely no idea who she is, and of their history together?
When you cut a shape out of a piece of paper the shape still remains, even in its absence. Maybe he intuitively knew her through the empty space where she used to be. Or maybe he was already engaged in idealising her, deleting what he doesn’t want to hear. Or maybe he’s trying to pay her a compliment, to say she’s being too hard on herself. Or maybe all of the above plus a ton of other stuff.
The Lacuna process is imperfect, after all: it doesn’t replace the memories with anything, it simply leaves a hole, a damaged brain. I liked that they referred to the procedure as brain damage, even as a little joke. These people have damaged themselves through cutting part of themselves away.
If she'd been wiped from his memory, would that wipe out all his knowledge of the song "My Darling Clementine" and Huckleberry Hound? He knew it when they met for the real first time, at the beach party. Presumably he'd known the song and the cartoon since childhood.
I thought it was wiped because he introduces Clementine back into the memory of being bathed in the sink, in which his mother is singing that song. Maybe.
The only possible criticizing thing I can say is that Elijah Wood was such a jerk and the trailors didn't warn you of that.
I actually felt really bad for him, being constantly ignored by everyone else, desperate for love and attention. It doesn’t excuse his stalker behaviour, but I could sympathise with him. He seemed very lost and hurt.
There were also a few lines, one in particular, that seemed to echo my situation with my girlfriend perfectly - one very bizarre line that I've said to her which a lot of people don't say, I think (that when I first met her, I was first attracted to her back and had a strong sense that we'd be a good match, and that her front would be very lovely as well).
I liked that, too. It’s an unexamined cliché that you can’t tell anything about someone from first sight. Posture, physiology, build, facial expressions, body language, intonation, dress sense, hair: in what way is that not a wealth of information? Doesn’t negate the need to constantly question your assumptions built up about that person through those sources.
I've been waiting to see something like this all my life.
Yes, yes, yes. I’m so happy to have seen this. I reckon it’ll help heal a lot of people. |
