Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind’s Original Ending Would Have Buried the Movie

Michel Gondry made a stunningly strange romantic drama. Two lovers embark on an experimental "erasure" of their memories about each other. This, it seems, is the essence of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – a thoughtful and honest, sad and ironic movie about memory and nostalgia.

What Is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind About?

In the movie, two topics are closely intertwined: love and memory. By having Joel and Clementine first fall in love, then fight, then decide to erase each other from their memories, then meet and fall in love again, the filmmakers prove that when people are made for each other, they will be together no matter what.

The originality of this generally simple story lies in the characters' conversion to Lacuna, a small company that deals with memory erasing. While everything goes smoothly with Clementine, Joel turns out to be a difficult client, and only the intervention of Dr. Mierzwiak allows the memory wipe to be completed.

Established technology malfunctions when a person internally resists the manipulation of his consciousness, but love still remains to live somewhere deep in the subconscious.

As all fans remember, the main characters of Gondry's movie met and got to know each other again in the finale. However, when writing the plot of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman did not want to give us a happy ending.

First Draft Had Joel and Clementine Running in Circles

The first draft of Kaufman's script ended with a scene in which an aged Clementine erases her memory. It turns out that she has already done this 15 times in the course of half a century, and each time she tried to forget the same person – Joel.

The director who also worked on the script convinced Charlie not to subject the audience to such a heartbreaking finale – and as a result, the movie ends on a promising note.

However, there are still small hints that the characters are doomed to go around in circles.

Second Draft Would Ruin the Main Idea of The Movie

Kaufman had another idea for the ending, which he wanted to end up in the final cut and which was also talked out of. According to Jim Carrey himself, Joel and Clementine did not stay together, Carrey's character simply left his lover.

If the previous ending with the aged Clementine seemed hopeless and bleak to you, then this version generally kills any positive message that this movie carries.

The original finale follows the movie's motto that you can erase the memories of love, but you cannot erase love itself, which is confirmed throughout the movie, including the development of Mary and the Dr. Mierzwiak's relationship.

And the ending, in which the main characters abandon each other, would not only break the hearts of millions of viewers, but also contradict the main idea of the movie.

The original ending can be called open: we know that Joel and Clementine stayed together, but for how long? Did they manage to learn from everything that happened, or did they fight again?

Strangely enough, it doesn't matter. They were happy while they were together, and that's the most important thing.

Source: Vanity Fair