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Mar. 28th, 2004 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxWent to see the movie this afternoon. In general I'm *not* a Carey fan and I found the aesthetic of the film to be a bit ugly (although it was a deliberate aesthtic, I just found myself contiuously thinking "CLEAN UP! WASH!"
Anyway, those criticisms aside, I found the movie intelligent and interesting. To discuss further means spoilers:
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The structure and time line of the movie isn't linear. I think you clue into that very quickly. In fact I never doubted that we were seeing the near end at the beginning. There were enough clues to that being the case that I wasn't the least bit surprised by that revelation. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the real ending.
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The movie starts with Carey's character waking up and going to catch a train. While standing on the platform he admits in voiceover that he had the overwhelming urge to ditch work and go to the beach (in the dead of winter). He follows that urge and ends up at the beach where he sees a woman -- Kate Winslet -- on the way back on the train they talk and discover that they live in the same general area and yet they can't really remember having seen one another (tip-off to the timeline being out of order). Every time they start to part ways, they don't. They end up going to the rive (which is frozen and laying down and staring at the stars) and talking all night.
Opening Credits
Carey's character is in angry tears having broken up with Winslet's character. He goes to his friend's house to bitch and moan about the break-up and the friend reveals a card from a company saying that Clemintine (Winslet) memory of Carey's character has been erased and that she requests that they never mention her relationship with Carey to her in the future. Carey goes to confront the company that erased Clementine's memory and, eventually, is so angry that he decides to have his own memory of HER erased. Somewhere in all of this you beging to figure out that even what you're seeing on screen is just a memory. That he's already in the erasing procedure. That these memories are being erased (because they would need to be, wouldn't they? If he's forgetting EVERYTHING about Clementine, he'd need to forget that he chose to have the memories erased.) You see how they broke up the day before Valentines. You see the fight that happened the day before that. If these timeline things aren't enough, there are things happening in "Real" time with Elijah Wood, Kirstin Dunst, and some other guy. They're actually the ones doing the erasure of Carey's memory. Wood is talking to the other guy and he ends up admitting that he'd helped with the erasure of Winslet's memory and that he'd fallen for her. Carey, by this point, has begun to figure out that what's going on is just memory and actually is somewhat conscious enough to hear Wood's admissions and realizes that Wood is exploiting the things he'd learned about Clementine and Carey in HIS courtship of Clementine (even going so far as giving Clementine the necklace that Carey had bought for her for Valentines) Also, inside Carey's mind they have gone back far enough that Carey remembers the good times with Clementine and why he loved her. He doesn't want his memories of her erased. He ends up (rather amusingly) trying to "hide" Clementine in memories where she doesn't belong and even later in his own repressed memories. . .except it's a doomed thing. They eventually erase his memories of her. Meanwhile (again with the weird timelines) we see how Wood's courtship of Clementine DOESN'T work. He does all the things he's gotten from Carey about what made Carey's and Clementine get together (going to the frozen river and looking at the stars) but it just DOESN'T work. She's upset and she walks out on Wood. . .and now we're back to the beginning of the movie where Carey wakes up and starts to go to work and ditches work to go to the beach where he meets Clementine (on Valentines day, so we realize they had only broken up the day before). They have their night under the stars and are clearly falling in love... and that seems to scream "happy ending" moment but they actually take the movie one step further. There's a subplot with Kirsten Dunst and the Dr. who created the memory erasing procedure where she became convinced that it's not right to erase memories and also shows that you're almost certainly going to be attracted to the same people all over again. She sends the records to the patients whose memories have been erased. So just as it looks like Clementine and Carey are going to get a happy ending where they start over, Clementine opens her mail and finds the letter from Dunst and a tape of her own interview prior to memory erasure. She pops the tape into the car stereo and suddenly Carey and Winslet are listening to Clementine's list of complaints about all the ways that Carey has failed her, how he's going, how trapped she feels in her relationship with him, etc. Carey hurt and angry all over again (and not sure that she's not playing some elaborate mindfuck on him) kicks her out... only to go home and find that Dunst has sent HIM a letter and his own tape as well. Winslet goes to try to talk to Carey and ends up hearing HIS tape where he's listing all his complaints and distrust of Clementine. Clementine goes to leave but he stops her. He... he can't articulate it. But, he doesn't feel that way now. She tells him, no, but he will. He will grow tired of her constant hair color changes, her insecurities, her wild ways and she WILL almost certainly end up feeling trapped and pushing him away because that's what she *always* does in a relationship. Surely it's bound to happen again. And h sort of smiles and says, "I don't care."
I don't think the movie takes the stance that you can't change things. That wasn't the impression I got because even in memory they changed things (and the way memory is handled is neat. Sometimes he remembers people without faces. Things disappear in the memory. I liked how in the bookstore none of the books had titles on the spines because... who notices the titles of books unless it's the one you're looking for?) It does seem to come down on the side of if someone is attractive to you, even if you don't remember them, you'd end up attracted to them all over again. And you don't get the sense that Clementine and Carey's character are DOOMED to make the same mistakes all over again. They indeed MAY have learned something... or they could make the same mistakes again. It's not set, but they're willing to take the chance.
Again, something in the aesthetic of the movie nagged at me, but all in all it was an intelligent and well written movie. Despite all the weird time shifts you could follow them (although the revelation that the movie started near the end really didn't come as a shock).
All in all, I liked the movie. It would be worth watching again in video.
Anyway, those criticisms aside, I found the movie intelligent and interesting. To discuss further means spoilers:
V
A
G
U
E
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
The structure and time line of the movie isn't linear. I think you clue into that very quickly. In fact I never doubted that we were seeing the near end at the beginning. There were enough clues to that being the case that I wasn't the least bit surprised by that revelation. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the real ending.
S
P
E
C
I
F
I
C
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
The movie starts with Carey's character waking up and going to catch a train. While standing on the platform he admits in voiceover that he had the overwhelming urge to ditch work and go to the beach (in the dead of winter). He follows that urge and ends up at the beach where he sees a woman -- Kate Winslet -- on the way back on the train they talk and discover that they live in the same general area and yet they can't really remember having seen one another (tip-off to the timeline being out of order). Every time they start to part ways, they don't. They end up going to the rive (which is frozen and laying down and staring at the stars) and talking all night.
Opening Credits
Carey's character is in angry tears having broken up with Winslet's character. He goes to his friend's house to bitch and moan about the break-up and the friend reveals a card from a company saying that Clemintine (Winslet) memory of Carey's character has been erased and that she requests that they never mention her relationship with Carey to her in the future. Carey goes to confront the company that erased Clementine's memory and, eventually, is so angry that he decides to have his own memory of HER erased. Somewhere in all of this you beging to figure out that even what you're seeing on screen is just a memory. That he's already in the erasing procedure. That these memories are being erased (because they would need to be, wouldn't they? If he's forgetting EVERYTHING about Clementine, he'd need to forget that he chose to have the memories erased.) You see how they broke up the day before Valentines. You see the fight that happened the day before that. If these timeline things aren't enough, there are things happening in "Real" time with Elijah Wood, Kirstin Dunst, and some other guy. They're actually the ones doing the erasure of Carey's memory. Wood is talking to the other guy and he ends up admitting that he'd helped with the erasure of Winslet's memory and that he'd fallen for her. Carey, by this point, has begun to figure out that what's going on is just memory and actually is somewhat conscious enough to hear Wood's admissions and realizes that Wood is exploiting the things he'd learned about Clementine and Carey in HIS courtship of Clementine (even going so far as giving Clementine the necklace that Carey had bought for her for Valentines) Also, inside Carey's mind they have gone back far enough that Carey remembers the good times with Clementine and why he loved her. He doesn't want his memories of her erased. He ends up (rather amusingly) trying to "hide" Clementine in memories where she doesn't belong and even later in his own repressed memories. . .except it's a doomed thing. They eventually erase his memories of her. Meanwhile (again with the weird timelines) we see how Wood's courtship of Clementine DOESN'T work. He does all the things he's gotten from Carey about what made Carey's and Clementine get together (going to the frozen river and looking at the stars) but it just DOESN'T work. She's upset and she walks out on Wood. . .and now we're back to the beginning of the movie where Carey wakes up and starts to go to work and ditches work to go to the beach where he meets Clementine (on Valentines day, so we realize they had only broken up the day before). They have their night under the stars and are clearly falling in love... and that seems to scream "happy ending" moment but they actually take the movie one step further. There's a subplot with Kirsten Dunst and the Dr. who created the memory erasing procedure where she became convinced that it's not right to erase memories and also shows that you're almost certainly going to be attracted to the same people all over again. She sends the records to the patients whose memories have been erased. So just as it looks like Clementine and Carey are going to get a happy ending where they start over, Clementine opens her mail and finds the letter from Dunst and a tape of her own interview prior to memory erasure. She pops the tape into the car stereo and suddenly Carey and Winslet are listening to Clementine's list of complaints about all the ways that Carey has failed her, how he's going, how trapped she feels in her relationship with him, etc. Carey hurt and angry all over again (and not sure that she's not playing some elaborate mindfuck on him) kicks her out... only to go home and find that Dunst has sent HIM a letter and his own tape as well. Winslet goes to try to talk to Carey and ends up hearing HIS tape where he's listing all his complaints and distrust of Clementine. Clementine goes to leave but he stops her. He... he can't articulate it. But, he doesn't feel that way now. She tells him, no, but he will. He will grow tired of her constant hair color changes, her insecurities, her wild ways and she WILL almost certainly end up feeling trapped and pushing him away because that's what she *always* does in a relationship. Surely it's bound to happen again. And h sort of smiles and says, "I don't care."
I don't think the movie takes the stance that you can't change things. That wasn't the impression I got because even in memory they changed things (and the way memory is handled is neat. Sometimes he remembers people without faces. Things disappear in the memory. I liked how in the bookstore none of the books had titles on the spines because... who notices the titles of books unless it's the one you're looking for?) It does seem to come down on the side of if someone is attractive to you, even if you don't remember them, you'd end up attracted to them all over again. And you don't get the sense that Clementine and Carey's character are DOOMED to make the same mistakes all over again. They indeed MAY have learned something... or they could make the same mistakes again. It's not set, but they're willing to take the chance.
Again, something in the aesthetic of the movie nagged at me, but all in all it was an intelligent and well written movie. Despite all the weird time shifts you could follow them (although the revelation that the movie started near the end really didn't come as a shock).
All in all, I liked the movie. It would be worth watching again in video.
