Non-Linear Storytelling- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Sunshine_of_the_Spotless_Mind#/media/File:Eternal_Sunshine_of_the_Spotless_Mind.png

This film essentially starts at the end of the story. The chronology of events within this story is as followed:
- Joel and Clem break up after dating for 2 years
- Clem undergoes a process to remove her memories of Joel
- Joel finds out and decides to go through the process himself
- His memories of Clem are slowly erased, falling in love with her again
- Joel wakes up and gets on a train to Montauk at the last minute and on a whim (Clem as does this off screen)
- The two meet and spend the day together and hit it off
- They return home and find that they have been mailed tapes of themselves talking about the relationship and memories they had erased
- Clem tries to leave, saying their relationship will go the same way, but Joel wants them to try again

https://medium.com/applaudience/top-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-2004-top-10-movies-of-all-time-fb204bceee9d

The main part of the film, where Joel is having his memories erased, is best described as retrograde, the events happen in reverse order. We witness the latest memories of Clem and Joel and see how bad their relationship had become first, before going backwards towards the early memories of himself and Clem and we see the sweeter memories of them together. A review from The Atlantic says "The story-told-in-reverse is a common enough movie device, usually utilized to conceal information from the audience. But Kaufman and Gondry use it to a different end, gradually uncovering not hidden facts but forgotten emotions. [1]", the emotions being that the pair really did love each other in the beginning but appeared to forget it as the relationship came to an end.

The film also jumps between Joel's head where the memories of Clem are being deleted and the real world, where other plot lines occur involving the team that is deleting the memories. It's revealed that the head doctor that does this procedure had a relationship with one of his employees, who then decided to undergo the treatment. However she ends up falling for the doctor again, hinting that feelings are stronger and harder to delete compared to memories. The same can be said for Joel and Clem, their feelings seem to stick around and bring the two together again.   

https://www.trapword.com/86-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-2004/

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2004/09/the-movie-review-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind/69495/, CHRISTOPHER ORR

SEP 28, 2004