Memento & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Topic: Movie Reviews
I got a minor cold so I was out of work on Friday. It gave me the opportunity to watch not one, but two movies. The good news is that they were both excellent - well worth the money I'm paying Netflix.

Memento
Memento is a mindblowing movie on many levels. The basic plot is that Leonard Shelby has a brain disorder where he has not been able to create new memories since he received a severe injury to his head. He can remember everything up until he received the head trauma in an attack by intruders, but since then, he doesn't remember anything for more than about 10 minutes. Despite this handicap, he's on a mission to avenge his wife's death at the hands of the attackers who took away his memory.

Probably the most interesting feature of the film is that it actually runs backwards in time. What this does is to make us see the world the way that Leonard does. All he has is Polaroids, notes and tattoos to tell him what has happened before. For most of the movie, that's all the viewer has to go on as well. As the movie progresses, we see more of what has happened, but does it actually give you more information? The ending is a total mindfuck (not in a bad way), but I don't want to say anymore than that so I don't spoil the story.

This movie will definitely make you question the nature of facts and memory. It's a very well-crafted movie and a really good mind trip. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good, original story and puzzles. If you like your endings to tie up everything in a neat little package, then avoid this movie. For everyone else, you'll love it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I guess I had an unintentional theme for my movie-watching. Eternal Sunshine is also about the nature of the mind and memory, but it explores the topic with more quirky humor and less thrills than Memento. This tale is about the couple Joel and Clementine. After a rough breakup, Clemetine decides to have all her memories of Joel erased from her mind. To get back at her, Joel decides that he will have her erased too.

Most of the movie consists of montages from Joel's memories of his relationship with Clementine. THe director makes being inside someone else's head a very interesting experience. As the erasure progresses, Joel finds that he doesn't really want to go through the procedure so he tries to squirrel away some of his memories of Clem. This, of course, leads to some funny incidents. I know it doesn't sound like much, but the fact that much of the movie takes place inside Joel's head is brilliant, and the director does a good job of portraying the general weirdness/fuzziness of human memory. It reminds me a lot of Being John Malkovich. It's very well-done and touches a lot of emotions. After all, we've all been through relationships and have probably had breakups like theirs too.

There are a lot of questions/themes that this movie raises, but I think the big one is:
What do you really lose when you choose to erase memories?
This movie explores that question with lots of heart and humor and some just plain weird characters. Definitely go watch it. You won't want to have the memory erased. *insert groans here*