Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo
Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure. It felt like in the mid-aughts it was not obligatory to have seen it, but to have seen it ten or twelve times…
But then again, I’ll be the first one to admit that my mid-aughts were a little bit different than others.
Did I Like It: It was a fascinating watching the movie after having not seen it for many years. The flow of the plot had long since escaped my memory, but there were moments that have been living rent free in my head all this time.
Never has there been a movie where that strange, chiaroscuro quality to memory is more apropriate. The film is still funny, eccentric, and well acted and observed. But, back in those days when the film first came out, the question the film brings up is whether or not erasing pain erases the joy associated with, but as an older man I tend to think about it all in another way:
Can we ever really forget anything? I’ve met some people who would insist that they have and have put on a pretty good show of keeping up that claim, but I wonder. I guess I also wonder if, with a little time, the film’s conceit of those little moments that can vascilate wildly between being fond or painful memories have no hope of surviving. Joel (Carrey) and Clementine (Winslet) may not remember any of the particulars of why they grew to resent one another, but it’s not like removing those memories made them any less miserable. I too have probably lost more details of pain—to say nothing of getting completely wrong still more details—than I am probably aware of. There are still times I view as painful, and times I view fondly. They’ve even changed hands a few times back and forth.
Yes, indeed. Memory is a funny thing.