A Way With Words

Blessed are the Forgetful
April 23, 2004, 11:06 p.m.

Yeah, new layout. Design page for all pertinent information.

So it’s Shakespeare’s birth/death day today. Sweet. Dying on your birthday’s got all kinds of kick-arse symmetry. However, must be somewhat disappointing to miss out on your birthday party.

You know that point you reach when you’re reading a novel, and every page after that you can’t stop reading? That delicious part where you stay up till four in the morning reading, and wake up at ten just to pick up where you left off? I reached that with The Count of Monte Cristo last night. There’s a lot more in it than there was in the movie . . . some of it seem torturously long-winded, but it’s all so good, I just can’t wait to find out what happens next. Yay for Dumas!

I also went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tonight, on a whim with the Stray Texan. I was going to take my wife, but she was lamentably uncontactable, for some reason. (What happened to your phone, Ramona?) Anyway, I’m about to spoil it for you, so stop reading if you haven’t seen it and want to see it unsullied.

-- Spoiler Space --

Okay, so I really liked it. It’s got a lovely little twist to it, and I only realised it when Joel went back to his memory of his first meeting with Clementine. They’d mentioned it before, and it had varied from what they show at the beginning of the film, but I’d just assumed it was an imperfect remembering. Anyway, at that point everything clicked for me – why the damage to his car was the same; why the dates were muddled; what was up with Elijah Wood knocking on his car window. The Stray Texan got it a lot sooner than I did, but I’m no good at solving twists to movies.

My favourite quote would have to be right from the very end, when Clementine says to Joel, “I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what I do.” And Joel says, “Okay.” Cause I’m a sucker like that. I love that they’re willing to accept the bad with the good. Because when life gets tough, you can’t just erase the bad stuff and hope it’ll all go away. In one of the scenes, there’s a woman erasing her memories of her (presumably) dead dog. And that’s just so sad – you’re going to give up all your happy memories of your dog, just because it hurts that he’s gone? Stop being a coward.

Maybe this is just a sappy, silly romantic comedy, that reinforces all the old clichés, but it’s so well-done that, well, you just have to remember: there really is nothing new under the sun.

Oh, and did anyone else get kinda freaked out by the whole Frodo-gone-bad thing? Poor Elijah Wood is never going to be able to play anyone ‘evil’ without people going “Oh, but I liked him so much better as that sweet, poor Frodo.”