Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy realizes girl has had him erased from her memories, boy decides to undergo the same procedure but regrets it midway through. Then, after all that, boy and girl meet for a second time, and decide to try again despite everything, because love is irresistible like that.
Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman, along with actors Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, capture the excitement of discovering new love—and the utter grief that comes with seeing it fade—in ways that no movie has before or since. And while Eternal Sunshine is certainly a fantasy, it downplays its sci-fi elements (the memory-wipe company Lacuna is amazingly lo-fi) in favor of trying to explore the most secret nooks and crannies of the human mind and heart. A lot of it’s gut-punchingly sad, but there’s an undeniable sense of hope, too. (Prime Video)
