Line #114 Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eternal_sunshine_poster.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[-[[{{Tagline}} You can erase someone from your mind.\
3	Getting them out of your heart is another story.]]-]'']]
4
5	->''"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!''\
6	''The world forgetting, by the world forgot.''\
7	''[[LiteraryAllusionTitle Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!]]''\
8	''Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned."''
9	-->-- '''Alexander Pope''', "Eloisa to Abelard", as [[TitleDrop quoted]] by Mary Svevo.
10
11	''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' is a 2004 [[ScienceFiction science-fiction]] [[{{Dramedy}} comedy-drama]] film directed by Creator/MichelGondry, written by Creator/CharlieKaufman and starring Creator/JimCarrey and Creator/KateWinslet (the former in [[TomHanksSyndrome one of his more serious roles]]).
12
13	After his declining relationship ends in a serious argument, Joel Barish (Carrey) decides to make up with his now ex-girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski (Creator/KateWinslet). Finding she's changed her number, he desperately follows her to work; when she treats him like an average customer, he soon learns she dealt with the heartbreak [[ATragedyOfImpulsiveness by undergoing a memory-wiping procedure]]. Since Clem has cut him out of her life altogether, Joel meets with Lacuna Inc., the company that specializes in this procedure, and opts to undergo it himself in an act of spite.
14
15	What follows is a rather surreal journey through his memories, with Joel re-experiencing their entire relationship in [[InMediasRes reverse order]] as Lacuna backtracks through his memories to wipe them away in [[TwoLinesNoWaiting an interwoven, current-time B-plot]]. Of course, once Joel becomes consciously aware that he's reliving his fading memories (and those most recent bad memories are fading...), it doesn't take long for him to realize why he fell in love with Clementine in the first place, making him realize he'd rather not forget his connection even as he moves inexorably backwards through his memories towards erasing it completely...
16
17	The film does have some notable similarities to "Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine", a short story by John Kessel published in 1983; the said story centers around a couple who had their memories partially erased and follows a similar story progression.
18
19	Now has a [[Characters/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind character sheet]] that could use some growth.
20	----
21	!!This movie provides examples of:
22
23	* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: A cover of Music/TheBangles' [[http://jpopsuki.tv/video/LISA---Eternal-Flame/95ab5e1399b66990b5839a716eadbc6a "Eternal Flame"]] sung by LISA was used as the theme song in the Japanese version.
24	* AmnesiacLover:
25	** Clementine with Patrick, who uses Joel's file to win her over. [[spoiler: She gets progressively more disturbed the more he sounds like Joel.]] [[spoiler:Joel himself borders into this as well when the remnants of his memory drive him back to her.]]
26	** [[spoiler:Mary for Dr. Mierzwiak. In the deleted scenes it's revealed he pressured her into aborting his baby.]]
27	* AmnesiacResonance: The reason why Joel and Clem meet again at Montauk. [[AmnesiaLoop And again.. and again.]]
28	* AmnesiaLoop: Invoked. People keep getting into the same bad relationships over and over, then have their memories wiped off.
29	* AnachronicOrder: The film opens with Joel and Clementine meeting [[spoiler:after having the procedure performed,]] though this isn't immediately apparent. A lot of the memories revisited during the erasure procedure are visited out of order, particularly when Joel starts fighting back in response; as a linear series of events, the good in Joel and Clementine's relationship is slowly extinguished and forgotten (providing the original motivation for the procedures in the first place).
30	* AndIMustScream: It's not that the doctor ''won't'' stop... it's just that Joel ''can't tell him to''. This especially applies when Joel "wills" himself conscious long enough to look at the assistants with desperation in his eyes (but cannot speak) as they drug him back to sleep.
31	* ArcWords:
32	** [[spoiler:"Meet me in Montauk".]]
33	** Joel's choice adjective is "nice". This crops up as a common conversation piece, as a plot point (where [[spoiler:Patrick's accidental use freaks out Clementine as it makes her vaguely remember what was erased]]), and it even appears as a RunningGag:
34	--->'''Joel''': I had a really nice time last night.\
35	({{beat}})\
36	'''Clem''': (grins) ''Nice?''\
37	'''Joel''': (laughing) I had the best ''fucking'' night of my entire ''fucking'' life last night.\
38	'''Clem''': That's better!
39	* AuthorAppeal: If Creator/CharlieKaufman's [[Film/BeingJohnMalkovich previous movie]] is any indication, he has a personal fondness for the story of Abelard and Heloise. As seen in the page quote, Alexander Pope's poem about them ("Eloisa to Abelard") is the basis of this film's title.
40	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: [[spoiler:Even after they have each erased one other from their memories, Joel and Clementine both meet up the next day in the place they first met and then start to fall in love all over again. As well as being very sweet, it shows that Clementine also tried to resist her mind being wiped in the same way we see Joel do in the film]].
41	* BerserkButton: When Joel accuses Clementine of fucking people to get them to like her, she storms out of the apartment and officially breaks things off with him.
42	* BetaCouple:
43	** Mary and Stan, who both work at Lacuna and are seeing each other. [[spoiler: Then it's revealed that Mary was previously with Howard]].
44	** Joel's friends Rob and Carrie, who experience similar relationship issues to he and Clementine.
45	* BettyAndVeronica: Though we never meet Naomi, Joel's live-in girlfriend when he first meets Clementine, through his descriptions of her we can infer she was a "nice" GirlNextDoor, in contrast to Clementine's ManicPixieDreamGirl (though she herself lampshades and subverts this about herself). Joel chooses Clementine, the "Veronica", over Naomi's "Betty".
46	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Joel and Clem discover they wiped one another from their memories and, listening to their pre-wipe tapes, learn they ended up hating everything about each other. Despite this, and the fact that their relationship will probably end up in same, they decide to start over and try again.]] According to WordOfGod, one idea for the course of their relationship was they would get together, break up, wipe their memories, and start over multiple times.
47	* TheBlank: Faces in partially-erased memories.
48	* ABloodyMess: Joel uses a ketchup packet to [[PrankInjuries "slit" his throat]].
49	* BrainBleach: DeconstructedTrope through Lacuna Inc's memory wipe procedure: the film thoroughly explores the ramifications of the trope and whether one would even want to carry it out if it was available.
50	-->'''Joel:''' Is there any risk of brain damage?
51	-->'''Howard:''' Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but it's on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.
52	* BreakTheCutie: Mary is initially sweet, cheerful and lively, but becomes very depressed when she learns that [[spoiler:she'd already had a relationship with Howard and had the memory erased at his insistence]]. [[spoiler:And worse yet, in a deleted scene, it is revealed that Howard also convinced her to have an abortion.]]
53	* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Even [[Series/{{Friends}} Ross and Rachel]] didn't go through as many as Joel and Clem. Many of their memories show fights and reconciliations, till the end of the movie. [[spoiler:One interpretation of the film, made explicit in an early draft of the screenplay, is that the two of them spend their ''entire lives'' getting together, breaking up, erasing each other and then getting back together again.]]
54	* BrickJoke:
55	** In their break-up scene, Clementine comes in drunk saying she may have damaged the car. After their blazing row and her storming out, Joel follows her. When he tries to drive after her, he has to remove the car from a fire hydrant.
56	** When Clementine and Joel meet at the start of the movie, she asks him not to joke about "Huckleberry Hound", and he doesn't know it because it's been erased from his memory. When we see their true first meeting, the song is the first thing Joel says when he hears her name.
57	* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: One of Joel's humiliating memories is his mother catching him masturbating to crude, hand-drawn porn as a teen.
58	* ContrivedCoincidence: The unconscious Joel manages to piece together Patrick's relationship with Clementine and the deception he's used to win her over by overhearing a brief phone conversation between them.
59	* DeadPersonImpersonation: A variant -- [[spoiler:Patrick]] takes advantage of his job at Lacuna, Inc. to steal romantic lines and gifts from the materials that patients turn in when they erase someone from their memory, thus impersonating someone who is forgotten but not dead. (Interestingly, the strangeness of his target's emotional reactions to a few of these stolen moves suggest [[spoiler:Clementine resisted the erasure of Joel, too]]).
60	* DeadSparks: We first meet Joel and Clem when they are at the Dead Sparks stage of the relationship. The rest of the movie is about how they ignited those sparks in the first place and ends with the hope that they could be reignited.
61	-->'''Joel''': "Are we like those poor couples you feel sorry for in restaurants? Are we the dining dead?"
62	* {{Deconstruction}}: The film deconstructs the romantic comedy genre simply by showing the events of the weeks and months after Joel and Clementine fall in love. Even more than that, the AnachronicOrder we see things in is the ''normal'' order of a RomanticComedy -- first fighting, then falling in love -- when really these happened in ''reverse'' order as the two fell out of love. Also functions as a DeconReconSwitch; it's during the deconstruction of their relationship that we see why they fell for each other in the first place... and then they do so again by the end of the film.
63	* DoubleTake: [[spoiler:Clementine]] makes one just after Patrick gives her a gift stolen from [[spoiler:the items Joel turned in]]. See DeadPersonImpersonation above.
64	* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Stan says this almost verbatim to Patrick after he tells him he stole [[spoiler:a pair of Clem's panties]]. There's an awkward silence before they both break out laughing.
65	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Clementine's hair frequently changes throughout. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the color [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience helps indicate her relationship with Joel]]: it's green early in their relationship (and the first time they meet), red in the first part of their relationship when they were happy, orange when her relationship with Joel was falling apart, and blue after her memory is wiped of Joel (and when they meet a second time).]]
66	* FadeToWhite: How the film ends.
67	* FanDisservice: At one point Clementine briefly strips down to her thong, but only to check a (very ugly) bruise she gave herself from slipping on ice.
68	* {{Fanservice}}:
69	** As Joel is about to have the procedure done, there's a quick sequence of him changing into his pajamas - just to show Jim Carrey shirtless.
70	** In another scene where Clementine is changing for a party, she walks into the room in her bra and ''then'' pulls the dress on.
71	** Mary and Stan also spend a good portion of the second act in their underwear.
72	* FantasticAesop: Loving someone is worth the pain of bad times with them, and ripping them out of your memory is a lot more trouble and pain than remembering them.
73	* FantasticRomance: A very unique example in that the "fantastic" elements influence the ''dispelling'' of a romance, where the love story ends up moving ''backwards'', yet it otherwise counts: after going through a painful breakup, Joel opts to go through a procedure to erase his memories of the entire relationship, but as it occurs, he ends up going through a trippy mental journey remembering why he fell in love to begin with, desperately clinging to the memories of their relationship before it's gone forever.
74	* FictionalConstellations: Discussed when Clementine and Joel have their (apparently) first date on a frozen lake at night. Clem asks Joel to point out constellations though he doesn't know any, so he makes one up off the top of his head: Osidious The Emphatic ("Right over there, kind of a swoop and a cross").
75	* FondMemoriesThatCouldHaveBeen: [[spoiler:A unique variation; when the wiping goes further back into Joel and Clem's relationship, Joel realizes how much he loved her and how happy they used to be. Since he's losing her forever by erasing his memories of her, he then tries to combat it.]]
76	-->'''Joel''': [[spoiler:Mierzwiak, please let me keep this memory. ''Just this one.'']]
77	* FreezeFrameBonus:
78	** A love letter from Clem to Joel briefly appears that can only be read if you pause the movie and look really closely.
79	** Upon closer inspection, a lot can be inferred about Joel's relationship with Clementine from the objects he throws out to erase her.
80	** A montage towards the end has random single frames inserted that show happy moments between Joel and Clementine.
81	** Joel's bedside table has a copy of Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' on it - appropriate for both plot and theme.
82	* GenreMashup: A science-fiction romantic comedy-drama with some scenes that even border on psychological horror, most of which takes place inside the main character's head.
83	* TheGhost: Naomi is talked about but never seen on-screen. Joel breaks up with her for Clem and later states that this was a mistake. Actually, there was a sub-plot involving Joel having a one-night stand with his Naomi (played by Ellen Pompeo), but [[DeletedRole it was deleted from the final cut of the film]].
84	* GirlishPigtails: Clementine sports braided ones in a few scenes.
85	* GirlsHaveCooties: When Joel brings the memory of Clementine into his memory of being babysat as a toddler, he also takes on the mindset of a toddler. Consequently, when Clem [[PantyShot flashes her underwear]] at Joel, he reacts with childish disgust.
86	* HilarityEnsues: What happens when a man hides his girlfriend in his childhood memories.
87	--> '''Clementine/Joel's childhood nanny:''' [[LampshadeHanging Okay, this is REALLY twisted.]]
88	* IAmNotPretty: Clementine has severe body image issues and at one point calls Patrick because she's freaking out about her looks.
89	** During his procedure, Joel remembers a time when she confessed to him that when she was little she had an "ugly girl" doll that she named Clementine. She thought that ''she'' was ugly, and would say to her doll, "Be pretty!" in the hopes that she would become pretty, too. The intimacy of this confession is so profound that, as it disappears from his memories, Joel begins to realize that the procedure is robbing him of things he really doesn't want to forget.
90	* IfYouCanReadThis: Upon closer inspection, a love note Clementine wrote to Joel reveals that they had sex on the ice after the scene where they lie down on the frozen Charles.
91	* InformedAttribute:
92	** At the end of the film, when the audience hears the tape of Joel explaining why he wants to erase Clementine, he lists off several of her perceived flaws (among others, her poor vocabulary, her lack of education and how she thinks she can only get people to like her by having sex with them or dangling the possibility in front of them), none of which Clementine is ever seen possessing. That being said, Clementine gets particularly defensive about the last point and asserts that it isn't the case, suggesting that Joel may be something of an UnreliableNarrator.
93	** And when we hear Clementine's tape, the first thing she says about him is that he's "boring". By that point in the movie we've seen a number of scenes of the two of them having fun together. By the time each makes their tape, they're in the breakup phase, so they're probably exaggerating traits that may not have always bothered them or projecting their own insecurities on the other.
94	* InMediasRes: When Joel is having the procedure, the movie jumps between key parts of his relationship with Clementine (as opposed to chronological order). [[spoiler:Also used as a twist in that the movie opening, where Clem and Joel meet on a train, is actually for the second time ''after'' they've had each other wiped.]]
95	* IronicEcho: "I'll be sure to remember that". memory erased
96	* ItMakesSenseInContext: As with many Creator/MichelGondry films, the film features a lot of [[MindScrew bizarre, surreal imagery]], but in this case it generally makes sense.
97	* JustTrainWrong:
98	** The big UsefulNotes/LongIslandRailRoad logos on the train cars don't hide the red stripes that are the distinctive livery of Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line, which serves Connecticut and southern Westchester County.
99	** And, Joel gets on the train at the New Rochelle station, not in Brooklyn.
100	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Well, computer-guided really...
101	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The page quote, from Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard". Mary directly quotes from it late in the film.
102	* LostLoveMontage: Plot-justified, with the memory-erasing procedure causing Joel to relive his memories of Clementine and realize why he fell in love with her in the first place. As part of the {{Deconstruction}}, some downright bitter memories appear as well.
103	* LoveMakesYouDumb: One of the explanations why Joel and Clem fall for each other again and again, though knowing that their relationship was bound to fail.
104	* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler: The movie ends with Joel and Clementine discovering that they erased each other. It's left ambiguous as to whether they'll give their relationship another go. They have been destructive in the past and it's likely it could end badly -- as it would have in a different ending. But throughout the process, Joel realises he does love her and tries to prevent it, so it's possible they could have learned from their mistakes.]]
105	* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler: Mary and Dr. Mierzwiak were having an affair before Mary was pressured into having him erased from her memory.]]
106	* MeaningfulName:
107	** Clementine -- which means [[IronicName "merciful".]] [[spoiler:"Oh my darlin' Clementine... You are lost and gone forever...".]] The fruit may have been part of what led them to make her dye her hair orange, and also informed Joel's nickname for her.
108	** "Lacuna" is a gap, blank, or missing piece; in Italian, it also refers to a memory lapse.
109	* MemoryWipingCrew: Lacuna Inc are a non-MIB version, removing memories of bad relationships. They would even set up in the client's home so they would wake up without any idea that something had happened.
110	* MentalStory: Roughly half of the film takes place inside Joel's head while his memory is being erased.
111	* MilhollandRelationshipMoment: A slight case as [[AmbiguousEnding the fate of the relationship afterwards is left ambiguous]]: [[spoiler:upon Joel and Clementine learning that they were in a relationship and both opted to erase their memories of each other, they end up listening to the tapes of them discussing their breakup and the bitterness they wish to undo. It seems like they're about to separate yet again, but Joel -- [[AmnesiaMissedASpot seemingly against his own better judgement]] -- still asks Clementine to stay as he evidently still has feelings for her. Clem initially brushes it off, claiming that both of their personal problems will lead to them falling apart again... [[MaybeEverAfter which both of them accept]].]]
112	* MindScrew: The memory-erasing procedure is this both for the characters and for the audience.
113	* ModestyBedsheet: During any love scenes, Clementine is covered by the bedsheets.
114	* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: Prior to their break-up, Clementine says she wants to have a baby. Joel scoffs that she wouldn't be able to raise one.
115	* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Almost everyone Clementine meets sings "Oh My Darlin', Clementine" at her (often alluding to ''WesternAnimation/TheHuckleberryHoundShow'') -- a joke that is {{inverted\|Trope}} at the beginning, when Clementine learns to her discomfiture that Joel doesn't know the show or the song even when ''she'' sings it to ''him''. We later learn that [[spoiler:he had immediately associated Clementine with the song and with Huckleberry Hound at their (erased) first meeting, when he sang it at her right after she said not to joke about her name]].
116	* NoAntagonist: Joel's challenge is how he can make the memory-wiping process stop. Although Stan is the one doing the wiping, he has no idea that Joel has changed his mind.
117	** Patrick is a RomanticFalseLead at best and a perverted jerkass at worst. However, stealing memories (not to mention their underwear) from someone just to seduce them shows he's not exactly a man of good character.
118	* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: Early on, when Joel returns to his apartment to get Clementine erased from his mind, his neighbor congratulates him for having such a cool girlfriend.
119	* OldMaid: At one point Clementine freaks out and says, "I'm getting old". Kate Winslet was around twenty seven when the film was made.
120	* OnceMoreWithClarity: The scenes of Joel meeting Clementine on Montauk at the beginning are repeated later, at which point it's clear that they're [[spoiler:meeting for the second time, but neither one is aware of it.]] Even the sound of a van driving away outside as Joel wakes up turns out to be [[spoiler:the Lacuna, Inc. van]].
121	* OppositesAttract: Played with, and perhaps deconstructed. The conflict between Clem's open and outgoing personality and Joel's comparatively withdrawn and introverted personality causes friction in their relationship and is one factor which leads to their breakup - he's boring, she's unpredictable and dangerously impulsive.
122	* PracticalEffects: Virtually all of the most bizarre and fascinating scenes in this movie were created with old-fashioned camera, editing, lighting and prop/set tricks. The use of digital effects was very limited.
123	** The striking kitchen scene with Joel as a child was created with an elaborate ForcedPerspective set-up similar to some used by Creator/PeterJackson in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy.
124	** The rising water in the beach house was created by building a house by the beach and waiting for the tide to come in.
125	** Many of the "erased" book spines in the bookstore scene are just books turned around so that they are spine-in instead of spine-out.
126	** Clementine performing a TeleportSpam around Joel's apartment is actually Kate Winslet using hidden passages to get from one room to the other; that scene is done in one shot.
127	* PrecisionFStrike:
128	-->'''Joel:''' I had a really nice time last night.
129	-->'''Clementine:''' ''Nice''?
130	-->'''Joel:''' I had the best fucking time of my entire fucking life last night!
131	-->'''Clementine:''' Thaaat's better!
132	* ProlongedPrologue: The opening credits appear 18 minutes into the film, at the end of the first reel.
133	* QuickNip: At the Montauk restaurant Joel watches Clem spiking her coffee with spirit from a flask she brought with.
134	* RelationshipReboot: Joel and Clem literally wipe the slate clean... if by "slate" you mean "the memories of their romance". [[spoiler: Mary turns out to have tried this with Dr. Mierzwiak as well.]]
135	* TheReveal:
136	** Mary [[spoiler:already had an affair with Dr. Mierzwiak before the film started, then opted to have her memory wiped of the ordeal.]] The fact that the film sets this up to happen again is in keeping with the theme that if you don't remember your own history, you're likely to repeat it.
137	** Not to mention that [[spoiler: Joel and Clementine's "initial" meeting in Montauk is in fact the second time they've met.]] Probably qualifies as a FirstEpisodeTwist. This is a more positive spin on the theme: [[spoiler:YouCantFightFate]] where love is concerned.
138	* RewatchBonus: Once you've watched the film once, your experience of the opening scene on the train will never be the same.
139	* RippedFromThePhoneBook: Downplayed. In the last scene when Clem tracks down Joel at his apartment, we see her in the car holding a ripped out telephone page with Joel's address marked up.
140	* ScrewDestiny:
141	** We learn when we finish seeing the memory erasure that [[spoiler:Joel managed to implant the suggestion to go back to Montauk]] despite the memory rewrite -- and [[spoiler:Clementine's appearance on the same train]] suggests that [[spoiler:she may have done the same]].
142	** Clementine also suggests that Joel invoke this trope when leaving the beach house by offering that he should stay. Joel however tells her that he can't go back because the memory of the house had already been erased.
143	* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: A FunnyBackgroundEvent in the Lacuna offices has a client bringing with him a silver bowling trophy - evidently he found the memory of only coming in second in a bowling competition, rather than winning, too painful to bear.
144	* SequencingDeception: The first scene, where Joel goes out to Montauk and meets Clementine, [[spoiler:actually takes place ''after'' most of the events in the rest of the film, right after Joel's memories are completely erased]].
145	* ShoutOut:
146	** The film's title is a quote from Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard", a passage from which Mary recites to Howard.
147	** Mary also quotes Creator/FriedrichNietzsche at one point.
148	* SkywardScream: When Joel [[spoiler:starts reliving happy memories, and tries to call off the wipe.]]
149	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The movie itself is ambiguous (or at least balanced) on this, but it does seem to be fairly effective at revealing where ''viewers'' are on the scale.
150	* SlipIntoSomethingMoreComfortable: At the beach house Clem mentions "I'm gonna go find the bedroom and slip into something more ... Ruth".
151	* SlutShaming: Joel doing this to Clementine is what prompts their break-up.
152	* SmallRoleBigImpact: Hollis, Howard's wife, gets only two scenes, but drops the WhamLine specified below.
153	* SnowMeansLove: A lot of Joel and Clementine's happy memories take place in a snowy place, particularly on the frozen lake (two entire scenes and the film's poster). Patrick basically tries to steal this trope from Joel and force it onto Clem to no avail. The film drives the point home with last shot being of the two joyfully running on the beach as it starts to snow.
154	* StalkerWithACrush:
155	** Discussed. Clem asks Joel if he is a stalker when he offers her a lift home from the metro. He replies that it was her coming on to him in the first place which she calls "[[PlausibleDeniability the oldest trick in the stalker book]]".
156	** Patrick counts as a straight example. He is essentially seducing Clementine with passages from Joel's journals, and even gives her a present Joel had bought for Valentine's Day.
157	* StargazingScene: Clementine takes Joel on a romantic trip onto a frozen lake where they lay down and watch the stars. Clementine asks Joel which constellations he knows but he doesn't know any, so he makes one up.
158	* ThereAreNoTherapists: Had Joel and Clementine gone to counselling of some kind, there would probably be no movie.
159	* TitleDrop: The page quote, which appears in the film as recited by Mary.
160	* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Mary had a relationship with Dr. Mierzwiak. When his wife learned about his affair, Mierzwiak pushed Mary into getting him wiped from her memory.]]
161	* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when Joel becomes self-aware of the erasure:
162	-->'''Joel''': I don't know. ''You'' erased ''me.'' That's why I'm here and doing this.\
163	'''Clementine''': Sorry.\
164	'''Joel''': ''You.''\
165	'''Clementine''': You know me. I'm impulsive.\
166	'''Joel''': ({{beat}}) [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther That's what I love about you.]]
167	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: {{Averted\|Trope}} in that a great deal of the promotional material involved [[ThisIsReality pseudo-commercials for Dr. Mierzwiak's memory wipe clinic]]. Played straight, however, in that the entire premise involves the spoiler that Joel goes through with getting Clementine erased.
168	* UnreliableNarrator: Joel. A great portion of the film is told through Joel's memories of events he experienced with Clementine, but the unreliability of those memories is shown on at least two occasions.
169	** When Joel first arrives home the night of the erasure, his neighbor chats with him about Valentine's Day. This is then the first substantial memory about Clementine that gets erased. But while this event took place just a short while (maybe an hour at most) before the erasure, it is shown that Joel is already incorrectly remembering what his neighbor said to him.
170	** Taking the imperfection of human memory alongside whether Joel considered a given memory as enjoyable or upsetting, the audience ought to wonder if what they're viewing is what ''actually'' happened, or if Joel's memories are distorted, exaggerated, or embellished because of the passing of time and because of his emotional state at the time of the event. On several occasions, for example, Clementine often instigates arguments and acts cruel towards Joel; however, while she's the HotBlooded of the two, there's probably major bias since it's from Joel's perspective.
171	* UptightLovesWild: The film quite thoroughly deconstructs this. A relationship like this doesn't always work and after the falling-in-love part, it causes more pain than joy; so much so that both parties opt to have their memories removed of each other.
172	* ValentinesDayVitriol: Around the start of the film, Joel writes the following in his journal:
173	-->"Random thoughts for Valentine's Day, 2003: Today is a day invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap."
174	* VanInBlack: Joel is suspicious of the van following him in front of his apartment. Little does he know that it belongs to Lacuna's MemoryWipingCrew.
175	* VorpalPillow: PlayedForLaughs. The two main characters take turns pretending to smother each other, probably as foreplay. Clem calls Joel out for coming out of character too soon.
176	* WhamLine:
177	-->'''Hollis:''' Don't be a monster, Howard. Tell the poor girl. You can have him. [[spoiler: You did.]]
178	* WhereWereYouLastNight: The last time Joel saw Clementine before she had him erased was when she stumbled in the door at 3 A.M. after drunkenly scraping his car against a fire hydrant. The fight coming from Joel's reaction was Clementine's impetus to the procedure.
179	* WomenAreWiser: Inverted: as Clementine's ManicPixieDreamGirl status is deconstructed, Joel goes from being simply ComicallySerious to being the closer-to-Earth counter to Clementine's bare recklessness.
180	* WordSaladTitle: It's actually a LiteraryAllusionTitle, but without seeing it or knowing the source material, it sounds like randomly selected buzzwords.
181	* YouCanRunButYouCantHide: Verbatim. [[spoiler: Stan]] says this the second time Joel tries to get away to save [[spoiler:his memory of Clementine]], which to him probably appears as unexpected blips popping up on a memory mapping computer.
182	* YouCantFightFate:
183	** Clementine and Joel show signs that they would have gotten back together [[spoiler:even hadn't Mary opted to break the rules and mail them back all of the materials required for the procedure. In fact, Mary returning the tapes to them was what interrupted their getting back together again right after the memory wipe]].
184	** [[spoiler:Mary ends up falling for Dr. Mierzwiak again despite getting a memory wipe to remove even any memory of why she'd fall for him in the first place. Mary is alarmed by this as Dr. Mierzwiak is a married man, and probably would have renewed the affair if his wife hadn't caught them kissing in Joel's house. Part of Mary's alarm (and fury) later may come from the fact that while she had the affair wiped from her memory, Dr. Mierzwiak quite clearly ''didn't'' -- he wouldn't be able to tell her that they had a "history", otherwise. And he knew all the things that had made her fall in love with him the first time... and he may even have been doing the same thing as Patrick, playing on the forgotten memories to spark a relationship.]]

Context Film / EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind