Ms. Dominico’s Year 12 VCE English Class

 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Detailed linear chronology

• Sometime during or before 2002: Lacuna’s Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), who is married, and his receptionist Mary Svevo (Kirsten Dunst), who has developed a “crush” on him, have a sexual affair. When it goes bad, Dr. Mierzwiak pressures Mary into having her memory of their relationship erased.

• Also sometime during or before 2002: Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) meet at a beach party in Montauk, New York, and subsequently become romantically involved. In late 2003, their relationship begins to take a turn for the worse.

• Sometime in January or early February 2004: Joel and Clementine have a nasty fight. Clementine comes back at three A.M. very intoxicated and having damaged Joel’s car. They have another nasty fight and she storms out.

• Soon after this, and before Valentine’s Day, Clementine impulsively gets Joel erased from her memory by Lacuna. Patrick (Elijah Wood), one of Lacuna’s technicians, falls for Clementine and uses the mementos of her relationship with Joel that she has surrendered to Lacuna to seduce her.

• Three days before Valentine’s Day: Joel attempts to apologize to Clementine and goes to the book-store where she works, but Clementine fails to recognize him, and he sees her kissing Patrick. Joel learns that she had her memories of him erased and is deeply hurt by this.

• Just before Valentine’s Day, Joel arranges with Lacuna to have his memory of Clementine erased as well. He is told to bring any mementos that might remind him of Clementine to Lacuna. However, in his haste, he doesn’t get them all (leaving a painting of Clementine as a sort of skeletal figure on the River Styx). Patrick acquires Joel’s items as well.

• That night, February 13, after 8:30 pm, Stan (Ruffalo) and Patrick go to Joel’s apartment to do the procedure. There is an incomplete erasure of Joel’s memory of his meeting with Dr. Mierzwiak. In his dream-like state, Joel is also “aware” of what is happening and is sometimes active in this dream-like world.

• Meanwhile, Mary has come over to see Stan. Patrick calls Clementine and finds out that she is upset about something. He asks Stan for permission to go see her, and once Stan realizes that this will leave him alone with Mary, he tells Patrick to go.

• As these events unfold, Joel continues to watch his memories being erased and they gradually shift from the bitter, bleak ones related to his break-up with Clementine to the moments they had together where they were both truly happy. Joel decides that he wants to cancel the procedure and begins actively resisting the erasure by “hiding” his memories of Clementine in memories unrelated to their relationship (such as his childhood).

• Meanwhile, Patrick arrives at Clementine’s apartment to find her distraught, evidently over her own altered memories. Impulsively, Clementine decides that she wants to go with Patrick to the frozen Charles River, where Patrick tries and fails to reenact the magic of the night that Clementine had described in a love letter to Joel, which Patrick found in Joel’s mementos.

• Back at Joel’s apartment, Stan and Mary have just finished having sex. Suddenly, an alarm from the machine sounds and Stan discovers that somehow the process has gotten derailed (due to Joel’s subconscious resistance). At Mary’s insistence, Stan calls Dr. Mierzwiak at his home and informs him that he needs help with the case and Mierzwiak agrees to come over and take charge of things.

• Once the doctor arrives, Mary shows that she is still very attracted to Dr. Mierzwiak. Noticing this and feeling uncomfortable about it, Stan goes outside leaving the two alone with Joel. After some awkward talk, Mary kisses the doctor. Mierzwiak initially tries to fend her off, but he quickly begins to kiss her back. Mierzwiak’s wife drives up outside, having been called by Stan. During the ugly scene that follows, Mary learns of her prior history with the doctor. This is an enormous shock to her and she walks off.

• Despite the distractions and Joel’s continuing resistance, Mierzwiak and Stan are able to get the erasure process back on track. The very last memory we see is that of Clementine and Joel’s first meeting at Montauk, where they sneak into a house. As the memory crumbles around them, Joel stays with Clementine beyond the point of the original memory to tell her that he loves her. She whispers, “Meet me in Montauk.”

• Valentine’s Day 2004, Joel wakes up with his memory erased. He impulsively decides to skip work, takes the train to Montauk (unwittingly acting on the instruction that his memory of Clementine gave him), and (re)meets Clementine there. They travel back on the same train and are drawn to each other. Back in Rockville Center, Joel offers Clementine a ride back to her apartment. She invites him in for a drink and he leaves shortly afterwards with her number, promising to call her. When he does, they make a date to go to the frozen Charles the next day, unwittingly reliving one of the high points of their now forgotten relationship.

• Meanwhile, Mary has quit her job and starts mailing out the memory files and tapes that she stole from the office to Lacuna’s clients (including Clementine and Joel). The morning after their meeting on the Charles (i.e., February 16), Joel drives Clementine back to her house. She asks if she can come over to his place to sleep and then goes inside to get her toothbrush. While she’s inside, Patrick approaches Joel and expresses puzzlement over why he is with Clementine after having his memory erased.

• Clementine picks up her mail (which includes the file that Mary sent to her the morning of Valentine’s Day) and Joel and Clementine drive off. They listen to the tape of her bitterly recanting the end of her relationship with Joel to Dr. Mierzwiak prior to her erasure. Joel, hurt and bewildered, makes Clementine get out of the car. When Clementine gets back to her apartment, she yells at Patrick, and it is clear that their short relationship is over.

• Later that same day, Clementine drives herself to Joel’s apartment. She finds him there listening to his tape about her, which he found in his mail upon getting home (this apparently also caused him to ransack his apartment looking for evidence of their relationship and discover the “skeleton” painting that he did of her). Clementine insists upon listening to Joel’s tape, reasoning that it’s only fair considering he heard all the hurtful things she said about him on her tape. But Clementine is deeply wounded by what Joel has to say on the tape and decides to leave. Joel follows her into the hallway and asks her to wait, not knowing what to do.

• Clementine tells him that their relationship is doomed to fail because of their respective failings, but Joel simply shrugs and says, “okay” (indicating that the possible future doesn’t matter as much as how he feels right now). For a moment, Clementine looks bewildered and then says, “okay” suggesting that she feels the same way. The movie ends with them playing in the snow on the beach, with the same shot being repeated over and over.

(from Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Sunshine_of_the_Spotless_Mind#Detailed_linear_chronology)