Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Anna Harrison

I was really excited to watch this film for our class. I had seen it before since it is one of my sister's favorites, but this viewing gave me the opportunity to take a closer look at the meaning. What stood out to me was that after their memories were wiped, both Clementine and Joel felt compelled to travel to the same beach on the same day and neither knew why. They ended up at the beach where they first met, a sacred space for the two, and met again. There was some sort of higher power that drew them to the beach. Maybe it was fate that wanted them there. It is also interesting to think about, then, what that means for those who try to change fate. Clementine and Joel erased the memories of each other, making it so the relationship practically never happened, but clearly they were meant to keep that experience. Whether that meant they stayed together in the end or not, I think that they were supposed to learn something from each other. When they got rid of that, the higher power made sure that they learned it again. I wonder if having the knowledge of their original demise helped their relationship to work out the second time. Did they hit the same road blocks as before? The film would not have worked if we knew either way, as we are supposed to ponder that ourselves.

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