For me it's all about those amazing quotes and dialogues.
I'm actually a very sensitive person; silly rom-coms bring tears to my eyes and even the most comic of horror movies scare the hell out of me. And this may sound super mega ultra DRAMATIC to the core but yes, after watching it for the millionth time, I still don't know what I feel. It's something like reading Wuthering Heights. That novel changed the way I think about Life; this movie kind of did the same.
Let me run through some of my favorite moments in this movie:
1. When a slightly disoriented, confused yet cautious Joel Barish says,
"Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?"
Such a natural, rhetorical question. It made me smile. Men, they are all the same.
2. "I don't need nice. I don't need myself to be it, and I don't need anybody else to be it at me."
I love this statement because it reminds me of something similar a close friend said long back. It's a sentence full of anger and resentment, but at the same time it solidifies into a thought. Clementine was an impulsive woman. However, her words describe a kind of negativity that defies reality. 'Cause soon enough, she falls in love with a 'nice' person. It's strange how what we don't want at all in life, is what we may end up liking.
3. "Adults are like, this mess of sadness and phobias."
When you look at a baby, and you behold this angelic face with sugar-coated dimples and smiles, you realize that true happiness lies in innocence. The adult mind is a complicated maze that knows no exit. I guess the goal of human existence should be finding a way to get back to childhood. It's a beautiful untainted piece of memory that we all cherish.
4. Clementine: "This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon."
Joel: "I know."
Clementine: "What do we do?"
Joel: "Enjoy it."
The last scene of Joel's memory is perhaps the most heart-wrenching part of the film. He knows he's going to lose the memory forever and he's tired of trying to run away. He's tired of trying to hide Clementine from those 'eraser guys'. He knows there is no way back. So midst the rolling grumbling sea waves and the gradual crashing of the deserted house next to the beach, they meet to spend one last minute together. It's a beautiful yet painful concept. Losing someone, not just physically but mentally forever and ever.
5. "...I'm just a fucked up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours."
She's the most brutally honest girl I've ever come across. She scoops colors from the rainbow. For her hair. Literally. Enough said.
6. "I could die right now, I'm just...happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be."
Officially my favorite quote in this movie. It's a golden line. The feeling of extreme bliss, while Joel and Clem lie on the glacier facing the glistening stars in heaven, is overwhelming. That happiness is leaking out and overflowing and it's choking you. It will kill you before you know it. Everything is so perfect that you could just die and still, nothing would have changed.
7. Joel: "I can't see anything I don't like about you."
Clementine: "But you will, you will think of things and I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me."
Joel: "Okay."
Clementine: "Okay."
There's more than one reason why this dialogue made me cringe. I guess it is because it was the simplest ending to an argument there ever was. He accepts her, and her weaknesses. She accepts his acceptance. It's like a mirror. They are two halves of one soul. They reflect so perfectly, that even when they decide to run away from each other, Fate rushes to bring them back. Darkness cannot exist without light. He can't exist without her and that's all there is to it.
8. "You can erase someone from your mind. Getting them out of your heart is another story."
The tagline of this movie is the truest piece of fact in the universe. How in the world can you forget someone who has given you SO much to remember? And by memories I don't mean online chats or phone conversations. I don't mean sweet words and long letters.
I'm talking about actual memories, that don't vaporize with time.
Moments that are crystallized not just in your fucked up brain, but in your heart. One day, you'll wish you could enter a clinic down town and erase that memory, that person off completely. But then, in the process you'll discover that even if this person has given you the worst kind of heartbreak and pain ever, they have still given you memories. Not only has this person given you precious moments, you too have given them a chance to be happy. And once they're gone from your mind, it's pretty much an irreversible change. But when Joel and Clem meet again, you realize that no change is permanent enough to keep you apart from the people you love. Because that's the role of the heart.
It kicks in when the brain blacks out.
It injects love into your life-blood.
It saves your life by saving your memories.
It brings eternal sunshine to your mind. It truly does.
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