the movieGOOMBA

4 GOOMBAS

Tabula rasa; according to the American Heritage Dictionary, a need or an opportunity to start from the beginning. I learned it in high school as 'clean slate'. John Locke believed that only babies where born with tabula rasa; their minds not yet altered by experiences and outside influence. But what if you could tabula rasa your way through life? If you could wipe your mind clean of all experiences that haunted your past and afflicted your future, would you do it? Luckily, like most adventures that we would rather not face, we can live them vicarious through film.

An incredibly artsy film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind begins at the end during Clem and Joel's second, first meeting. Jim Carey and Kate Winslet star in this wild film as Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski. Joel is boring and dull, while Clementine is crazy and spontaneous (which is already made obvious by her ever changing hair color). They dress exactly opposite, the act exactly opposite, and even their names sound completely opposite. Yet somehow they fall in love. After a bad semi-break up, Clementine, being impulsive, decides to erase Joel from her memories through Dr. Mierzwiak, a specialist who can track the places where certain memories are stored and delete them. Joel, hurt and confused when he finds that Clementine has erased him, decides to go through the procedure as well. However, during the procedure, Joel realizes what he's about to lose.

For the majority of the film, Joel desperately tries to retain some memories of Clem by dragging her to different parts of his brain to hide from the Erasers. There is no need for additional flashbacks or additional commentary because what this film does is illustrate their relationship through literal memory sequences. To us, it seems like Joel and Clem are basically trapped in his brain, running from memory to memory. How Joel and Clementine first met (the first time), how they fought, and what their relationship was really like. Joel had forgotten how good it had been.

Symbolism and lighting plays a huge role in this movie. The color of Clem's hair changes with the time line of their relationship. When they first met it was green, a symbol for youth and vigor, qualities that Joel found attractive in her. Then it turned orange, and Joel began calling Clem 'Tangerine;' orange being a symbol for energy and demand for attention (Joel was also first attracted to her orange sweatshirt). Then during the hard part of their relationship her hair was red, representative of strong and powerful feelings. Other subtle things such as music being played backward as Joel re-lives his memories with Clem. As for the lighting, often times there are spotlights used on Joel and Clem, further evoking the feeling that they are being hunted by the Erasers as fugitives are hunted by the police.

When Clem and Joel meet and fall in love for the second time, this meeting becomes a commentary on the power of attraction and love. The mind cannot fool itself into not loving again. This film has so much wrapped in such a small box. Its just a simple love story, but the way it comes together makes it art.