Entry 16.0 - Meet me at Montauk
Meet Me at Montauk
“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot?
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted and each wish resigned.”
(Just putting these quotes out there. Think on them. I’ll come
to it later.)
We usually observe the lives of people who are more
successful, more intelligent, and more stable than we are. We even try to copy
their ways, aspire to their lifestyle, and consider them our benchmarks.
Somehow, we never really pay attention to the ones we think of as “average” or “below average.” It’s as if there’s nothing interesting to learn or understand from their lives, or perhaps that they are less human than we are.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
It’s a love story, but not your usual monthly fix of dopamine
with cheap emotional ploys that are released nowadays. It offers a very unique
take on how love can be, in its depths and extremities.
Let’s consider a common man’s/woman’s fantasy:
A boy meets a girl, they form an instant connection against
all odds, continue to talk every day, and eventually fall in love.
I’m sure we all have this dream for ourselves someday.
But nobody talks about what happens thereafter.
What happens after you confess your love for each other?
What happens after that cozy and beautiful honeymoon period is over?
Now, imagine the two themes mentioned above together:
Two lives of so-called “below average” people intertwined in a love story that
explores what happens after the honeymoon period.
At least, that’s how the movie starts.
The Story of Joel and Clementine
Joel is someone who is usually silent, shy, and sort of an
underachiever. In his own words, “There’s nothing interesting about my life. I
wake up, go to work, and come back home. You should see my journal; it’s pretty
empty.”
Clementine comes off as a nutso who has boundary and
insecurity issues. She says, “I’m a messed-up girl who’s looking for her peace
of mind. I’m high maintenance and get bored with people easily.”
These two imperfect people, complementing each other’s
personalities, come together. Joel’s lack of interest in life and shyness is
counterbalanced by Clementine’s unpredictability, bipolarity, and eccentricity.
The story is shown in bits and pieces, highlighting the good
and bad moments of their relationship. It’s brilliantly focused on just two
people and what transpires in their lives. Interestingly, everything is shown
through Joel’s memories and point of view only.
What if you had a chance to erase memories from your brain?
It could be a place, a time, or a whole person.
Would we choose to remove all memories of a person from our
minds, probably of an ex-lover?
Would we want to remove the burden of our mistakes, regrets,
and memories of a person who’s long gone by now?
Would we exercise the option of erasing all the memories (good
and bad), or would we want to cling to the option of keeping the memories of
our mistakes and regrets, so we never repeat them?
(What would you do?)
This is not one of the easier stories to watch, as one can derive different meanings from the same scene; that is the brilliance—and curse—of Charlie Kaufman’s writing. It’s one of the most unique ways to present a love story.
It portrays the moods that Joel and Clementine are
experiencing. This is easily shown through the change in the colour of
Clementine’s hair or the crankiness on Joel’s face.
It speaks so much more about the routine nature of love rather than grand gestures. One of the most beautiful scenes is an impulsive decision where they are both sitting on a frozen lake, watching the stars (talking), and maybe that’s when Joel has the most expressive moment of his life, where he says,
“I’m just happy. I’ve never felt that before. I’m just exactly
where I want to be.”
Oddly enough, this movie’s writing, acting, and direction
remind me so much of Christopher Nolan and his films:
Inception and Interstellar.
Like Inception, much of this movie happens inside a
person’s mind. Minds are being manipulated by gadgets invented by humans. It’s
like doing inception, except a path of memories is being erased rather than an
idea being planted. Joel is aware of all this and is trying to resist what is
happening to his brain for the sake of his heart.
There’s a line in Interstellar that echoes in my mind:
“Love is that one thing we’re capable of perceiving that
transcends the dimensions of time and space.”
The whisper of “Meet me at Montauk” is the most miraculous, supernatural, yet truthful moment for me, where they’re trying to find a way in Joel’s memory to stay together and meet again.
Somewhere, the heart and brain together beat the concepts of reality and
science.
Woah! If you thought Interstellar and Inception were complex, try
watching this movie.
Now, I have a confession to make.
I lied at the beginning: it’s not just a story about two
people.
There are some other folks, too, who hardly have ten minutes
of screen time, but if you look closely, they have important roles to play.
(Still amazed by the writing and direction in utilizing these
characters.)
I’ll try to mention these folks without spoiling much of the
movie.
Rob and Carrie – Joel’s friends who are
married and constantly argue and quarrel about things. They do this because
they communicate and have opinions. We often despise fighting couples, but to
achieve a basic relationship with two-way communication, where you listen to
each other, is a significant thing in the long run.
Stan – Stan is a perfect example of a
guy making efforts to love someone who is already in love with someone else.
Mark Ruffalo’s variety and versatility in acting should be discussed more.
Patrick – What an absolute moron! He’s
the symbol of how unnatural and artificial things ultimately fail in love.
Howard – Even old and wise men make
unforgivable mistakes. They’re only human. (I won’t spoil this further.)
(If you watch the movie, let me know why he didn’t know about the quote by
Alexander Pope.)
Mary – Her character is of a chirpy
girl—a receptionist at the doctor’s office. That’s it.
Yet, she delivers two of the most important dialogues that are central to the
themes the movie explores:
“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.”
– Nietzsche
“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot?
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted and each wish resigned.”
– Alexander Pope
I’ve always hated the phrase, “Ignorance is bliss.” I dislike
how people use it as a justification for the positive effect it has on their
lives.
How happy are the ignorant people, who feel they are innocent
and unhurt, knowing nothing of the reality of this world? To forgo their life
from the burden of pain, they have chosen a life free of growth and
responsibility.
Love is not an easy thing to do. It’s awful, painful,
frightening, challenging, and cruel at times. Sometimes it makes you do things
you never thought you would. It’s not all rainbows and sunshine, or simply
“feeling right.” It’s rather a choice you make.
“Please let me have this one memory. I want to remember this.”
I doubt this is how an ignorant or below-average person behaves. It takes guts and courage to do and go through things like this.
Somebody said it right: “We understand the true value of things once they leave.”
There’s another person, decent and smart, who goes through the same procedure, surely more sorted in life than Joel and Clementine. I doubt they resisted in the same way Joel did or understood the permanence of this procedure: erasing someone from your life, or a life you had with them. From the look of it, I’m not sure who the better person is here: the one we considered below average or the decent and smart one.
This film raises tough questions and makes you ponder what
choices we would make. One such question is this:
One fine day, you receive a tape containing how you feel about
your partner, what about them frustrates you and irks you. It speaks of all the
vices and dark truths about them and gives you a full roadmap of how your
relationship will go to shreds.
The question is, after you both listen to each other’s tape,
what would you do?
If all that is said is nothing but the naked truth, do you
leave them as it’s going to happen eventually, or do you give each other a
second chance?
Being open to each other is perhaps the biggest vulnerability,
but after knowing everything, what choice would you make?
The movie ends with a beautiful song:
“Change your heart, look around you,
I need your love like the sunshine,
Everybody’s gotta learn it sometime,
Everybody’s gotta learn it sometime.”
I really hope you watch the movie. Once you watch it, you'll be in awe of the brilliance of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
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