This movie is one of my absolute favorites! I have a slightly different interpretation of the film though. I don’t believe the point of the movie is that you’re supposed to be rooting for their relationship, or that they’re a good pair. The way I see it, the sci-fi plot is a beautifully elegant exploration of the “Is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all”. At the beginning of his time in the movie, he is torn up about the breakup and is angry and confused. He is currently experiencing “loved and lost” and feels it would be better to “have never loved“. So he opts to get his memory erased. However, as the procedure is done and he goes through the memories, he realizes how much beauty, growth, and “texture of life”(to borrow a phrase from an earlier episode) is contained in the memories. That’s when he changes his mind, and no longer wants the memories gone. But i don’t believe he’s changing his mind about the relationship necessarily. We all see it’s a toxic relationship, and he knows it too. He’s not changing his opinion of the relationship in those moments, but rather is changing his answer to the question , ultimately choosing to “love and lose” instead of “never love” (from his experiential POV) When he ultimately fails to stop the erasing, and they meet again for the second time and discover the tapes, he wants to date again, and she feels it’s futile because they know that’ll break up and be toxic. But his response isn’t “nah, it’ll be different this time”. His response is “yeah, so?” He’s been given a second chance to opt for loving and losing, instead of never loving, and he picked to love and lose. They both know they’ll break up, but in that moment he’s realized that it is better to love even if it means inevitable loss. So yeah, i don’t get bothered as much by Riley’s complaint that they’re acting like high schoolers. That’s not the point. They aren’t being naïve by thinking it’ll be different this time. They know it’ll be the same, and they’re nonetheless choosing to redo the relationship, knowing there’ll be an ugly end.
Yup you nailed it. They are not compatible as a couple. He imagines her as his dream girl. Ever break up with a girl and then miss her. Only remember the best parts. Get back together and quickly realize why you broke up in the first place. That's what this movie captures. Kaufman said he wanted to make a breakup movie but realized it has to be told backwards.
One of the things I love about this is that the bulk of this movie doesn't pretend to be an objective take on Joel and Clem's relationship. It's mostly from Joel's perspective. When you're seeing Clem erased from his memory, that's not the "real" Clementine, that's an exaggerated, idealized version of her that Joel's brain has come up with. It's one of the smartest romance films ever made.
Originally the director had wanted an ended where it's explained the procedure had happened multiple times, essentially saying that they've done this before; date get angry erase and repeat. MY interpretation of the ending is this time they'll be happy as a couple I'm saying this because in the scenes where joel and clem are arguing + the tapes we hear and the scene of their meeting at the beach house clem is upset at Joel for always being a shy "woe is me" type character who didn't take initiative really and when Joel in clem are trying to hide in unrelated clem memories we see his trauma he was trying to suppress, the bird scene with the bullies, his mom (in his eyes) neglecting him and the scene where joel met clem at the beach house and decided to leave those are all his regrets and actions that he carried with him to make him shy and timid, but now that clem was in them and we saw them get erased, it's assumed that those events that effected his nature wouldn't be in his life anymore aka his timid nature, we see this at the end of the movie where clementine runs away out of Joel's apartment and he chases her down to try again even though the future is uncertain / might repeat. It basically showed he changed his nature. I'd like to hear other people's interpretations as this is one of my favorite movies
Oh my god, this is my favorite movie and I never considered the stuff about the previous trauma affecting him, but those memories having a type of erasure because he is trying to hide there. Then that means those memories will not dictate his life going forward!! wow, thanks so much for this message, this interpretation actually means a lot to me, it's my favorite movie for a reason, and relates to me own life a lot. Amazing post.
If I ever write a movie script, I'll remember to have my characters stop everything and explain the moral lesson for Riley. Because we all know ambiguity can't exist in good art. /s
@@TaylorMade4Zero the key is I just hate seeing characters do the thing that is (to only me, I guess) so OBVIOUSLY DUMB AND BAD. I want to understand character motivations, and I want filmmakers to write characters that choose to do things that make sense from their perspective. Joel and Clem made a dumb decision that I can't understand and it's frustrating
@@RILEYismyname hey dude. Just like what you like. Who cares. I'm surprised you engaged with these guys and their overly harsh criticism of you. I believe you're entitled to your own views and there's no point trying to get other people to see through your perspective since in such scenarios like now "They're Just Movies" lol
@@RILEYismyname Understandable. Since you ended up reading that last message which I didn't expect tbh I just wanna say I've been an avid listener of yours since NCIX days and was mega pleased to see you at LMG.
If reviewing movies was herding cattle then, James would be the border collie so majestic, David would be the farmer with a shotgun just tells you how it is and Reiley would be group of school kids coming from the city to pet all the farm animals for a day just so innocent, what a great team you lads make, keep up the great work :)
proper good movie..they don't make movies like this anymore sadly,and it only gets better as you get older,experience life, heartbreak,true emotional struggles. everything is absolutely brilliant about this one, writing,directing,acting performances (especially carrey),soundtracks(who can forget the phone call). i haven't listen to the episode but the ratings satisfy me for once 😁
I don’t know; I feel like they do still make movies like this. Just have to look for them. I particularly felt like Tar and Banshees of Inisherin stood out this year.
@@raymondzrike well i have to check them out surely...honestly my experiences of recent movies have been very poor that i just don't check out the new movies as much....one of my friends recommended mr robot to me in this genre and i didn't like it at all sadly..
Patrick role is to show that love is not built on “right” words told at the right time, noone can follow a script in love, love is a deeper connection between two people. If you think about it, there are so many people behaving a certain way thinking is the good way to make someone else fall in love, like doing romantic things, saying certain phrases, etc.. I hate such “built up” people.
I think i would listen to the tapes and then use it to avoid those same problems in the future. I think the ending was bittersweet because they decide to go at it again to hold onto the relationship
@David. Did you guys ever compare David's voice and even the way he speaks with the RU-vidr: FuryForged? Guy who usually plays NOITA? They are voice twins :)
1:09:10 that tweet, has been taken down by the same author because he made an error and what he reported was not correct. Andor is doing far better than anticipated.
The hit/nit pick about the friends relationship is hard to trust because we basicly only see them in Joel's head so we're just seeing how he perceived them acting in a boy/girl relationship while telling him what happened with the postcard. Sometimes our minds can be unreliable in high stress situations like that must have been. R.I.P. Tom Wilkinson
SMH this like isnt even what I was even trying to reference all I was saying is that he spent most his time in what would equate to the poor side of vancover, probably never went downtown or to winter park, or anywhere even close to nice except for maybe I-Drive.
