On Valentine's

“Random thoughts for Valentine's day. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.”

That was Jim Carrey as Joel Barish grieving about his loneliness in Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, probably the most ingenuous and innovative movie to come out of Hollywood in the last two years. The title itself is taken from Alexander Pope's poem "Eloisa to Abelard":

How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.

Anyone who has ever fallen in love must watch this movie at least a couple of times (You will understand it only if you watch it a couple of times). It’s the most poignant commentary on love, loss and isolation of the times we live in. The basic premise is intriguing enough: What if we could erase a select segment of our memory regarding an individual or event? What if you could replace your memory? What if the procedure fails? And, more importantly, what if you still cannot get that individual or event out of your mind. As the movie’s tagline suggests, “You can erase someone from your mind. Getting them out of your heart is another story.”

And today, ably assisted by the corporate world, we pay tribute to that truth. That, there is no getting away from that someone, if your heart has decided (to your utter surprise) that, that someone indeed is the one. That, even with all the imperfections on both sides, together what you have is something that you could have never had individually. That, given a chance, you’d still want to fall in love with the same someone.

And as the fate-struck lovers try to negotiate through their cluttered memories (Kate Winslet as an unforgettable Clementine), the truth comes out.

Clementine: I wish you had stayed.
Joel: I wish I had stayed too. I swear to god I wish I had stayed. I wish I had done a lot of things. I wish... I wish I had stayed.
Clementine: Joel? What if you stayed this time?
Joel: I walked out the door. There's no memory left.
Clementine: Come back and make up a good-bye at least. Pretend we had one.