The Romantic Couple : Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind (2004) vs. The Awful Truth (1937)
By Barnaby Falck
Since the couples from the films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry) and The Awful Truth (1937 Leo McCarey) are both presented in their own unique ways, it is best to take a quick look at the story of both couples.
Joel Barish (played by Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) are a couple that meet at a friend’s beach party and immediately develop a connection as they are both outsiders at the party, sitting far away from other party goers. They soon enter quite a serious (they move in together and at one point even talk about having kids) and long term (2 years) relationship. However near the end of the relationship the two are constantly fighting, and after one particularly vicious shouting match, Clementine gets Joel erased from her memory by an organisation called the “Lacuna Corporation”, and when he finds out, Joel gets the same process done to him. However once the process has started, Joel realises he doesn’t want to forget Clementine at all, and fights against the process, which at first he seems to lose against. However soon after he’s had his memories of Clementine erased, he runs into her again and the two soon re-develop their initial attraction seen in the earlier memories (a very unique aspect of Eternal Sunshine is that most of the story is presented through Joel’s memories and not in chronological order). After discovering that they have both had their memories whipped after a failed relationship, the two decide to give their relationship a second chance.
Unlike Eternal Sunshine, The Awful Truth is presented in a much more straight forward, chronological way. Jerry Warriner and Lucy Warriner at the beginning of the film are a married couple who get a divorce after an argument of mutual jealously and suspicion as both members of the couple suspect the other of being unfaithful. The couple have 60 days to sort out their affairs with each other before the divorce is finalized, however by the end of those 60 days Jerry and Lucy realise that they cannot resist each other and at the end of the film end up sleeping together.
Now that we’ve seen the individual stories of both couples now we can look at the similarities. In both films we see a couple having a falling out, breaking up and then getting back together again. In his article Forget me not: The Genius of Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind David Edelstein explains – “The Philosopher Stanley Cavell has called the classic screwball movies like The Awful Truth (1937) “comedies of remarriage”, in which couples are rudely bounded from their Edenic connubial gardens and reunited (after a series of farcical/magical contrivances)”. (Edelstein 2004, 1) The Awful Truth definitely fits into the idea of a “Comedy of remarriage”, as it has a couple leading a seemingly blissfully happy life and after a misunderstanding the couple are separated and after a series of farcical/magical contrivances, for example, Lucy’s car breaking down, to the couple being escorted to Lucy’s Aunt’s cabin in the woods by two bumbling police officers, to the entire ending sequence which includes a troubling door and ends with the couple at last being reunited in bed. David Edelstein continues in his book to show that Eternal Sunshine is a modern comedy of remarriage, drawing a direct parallel with The Awful Truth. “In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, - screenwriter Charlie Kaufman teleports the screwball genre into the 21st century: It’s The Awful Truth turned inside out” (Edelstein 2004, 1). Indeed, if you look at the basic plot of Eternal Sunshine, we see a couple, Joel and Clementine living a fairly happy life, perhaps not as comfortable and idyllic as Jerry and Lucy (though we only see a small glimpse of this couples life before the break up), breaking up and getting back together because of magical contrivances, or in this case, Science Fiction contrivances with the Lacuna Company erasing the couples memories and Joel saving the idea of Clementine in his head and one of the assistants at the Lacuna Corporation, Mary, mailing all the case files from previous operations to her former clients, revealing to both individuals that they had previously been in a relationship, which is the catalyst for the two giving the relationship a second chance. Both the basic story arcs of Eternal Sunshine and The Awful Truth fit into the concept of the “Comedy or Remarriage”.
Outside of this idea of the “Comedy of remarriage” both couples seem to want to be together, despite the fact that the members of both relationships seem to get on each other’s nerves. In the case of The Awful Truth, this can be seen many times throughout the film. It can be seen at the beginning of the film when Jerry and Lucy are trading barbs over each other’s respective “unfaithfulness”, and after the two have broken up, Lucy is attempting to move on and is dating another man, “Dan” and Jerry spends most of his time embarrassing Lucy, however despite all this, the couple at the end of the film are shown still wanting to be together. In the case of Eternal Sunshine, Joel and Clementine are seen through the flashbacks to have a very unstable relationship, as Clementine (keep in mind this is mostly seen through Joel’s memories) often starts arguments with Joel that usually end in Clementine storming away from him, so unstable in fact, that by the time of the break up, the two have long lists of what they find unattractive and annoying of the other, seen through recordings done by the Lacuna Corporation. However, after the two have their memories erased and they each hear each other’s recordings, they decided to give the relationship a second chance.
The fact that both couples seem to want to be together despite the fact that they, on the surface, don’t seem to get on at all, shows a certain degree of natural attraction. At the beginning of Eternal Sunshine, we see Joel after having his memories of Clementine erased, running into Clementine, and the two hit it off pretty much straight away after a period of some awkwardness, almost exactly like how they met the first time (the beginning of the film does not show the first time they have been in a relationship). We get to see clearly that while they don’t seem to match on the surface, the two do have elements that the other finds attractive. In The Awful Truth, once Jerry and Lucy get the divorce settled, the two are always finding excuses to be around and visit the other. This is seen through Jerry’s many visits of the couple’s dog, which legally through the divorce agreement is Lucy’s, and Lucy telling Dan (her new lover) about a business agreement that Jerry has for them in order for Jerry to come over.
By the end of each film, we see the couple beginning their second attempt at being in a relationship, and in the case of both couples, they have the “advantage” of knowing the negative aspects and what personally annoys them the most about their partner. In the case of The Awful Truth, Jerry and Lucy have already been through a marriage and so know personally what they dislike about each other, and to some degree what annoys their partner. In Eternal Sunshine Joel and Clementine, even though they don’t personally remember their past relationship, each have a list of negative points that go into quite some detail on the other person, thanks to the Lacuna Corporation’s recordings before the process of memory erasing begins. Even though not all the information on the recordings is correct, it is very influenced on how the person speaking at the time of the recording felt, it is still useful for either Joel or Clementine to know what went wrong in their previous relationship.
In The Awful Truth, a large part of Jerry and Lucy’s relationship is the aspect of performance that comes with the relationship, present both when they are married and when they are getting their divorce finalised. They are always setting the other up for embarrassment when they are in groups and are both pretending that they are ok with the divorce. Interestingly enough, there is an aspect of performance in the relationship of Joel and Clementine, though it is mostly on Joel’s behalf, as seen when Joel fakes his own death to amuse Clementine and himself, even though in this particular case it backfires on Joel.
In both films there are two outside forces that are trying to keep the couples separated. The first is the “secondary romantic interest”. In the case of The Awful Truth this is Dan, the not as intelligent, but fun loving “cowboy” who is absolutely smitten by Lucy, however ultimately has his heart broken when he finds out Lucy does not completely share his sentiment. In contrast to quite pleasant character of Daniel, there is Patrick from Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. While Clementine is having her memory erased, Patrick falls in love with her, and instead of erasing all her memories of Joel, he places himself inside of the memories instead, so that she falls in love with him. However this backfire on him when this starts having negative effects on Clementine’s mental well-being, and ultimately he fails in winning her over as she gets back together with Joel by the end of the film. In the case of both films, the secondary romantic interest are more of a distraction for Lucy and Clementine, than a threat to the main romantic interests, Jerry and Joel.
The second outside force keeping the couple apart in both films is the time limit that they both have. In The Awful Truth this time limit is set up by the couple themselves, and it is the 60 days before their divorce is fully accepted by law. However, as seen by the end of the film, the couple ignore this obstruction and get back together anyway. The time limit in Eternal Sunshine is Joel having his memories of Clementine erased and him fighting to keep his memories of her. In the end Joel fails, however again with this film, this time limit is ultimately ignored as the couple end up back together in the end. This helps strengthen the fact that the couples seem to have some sort of natural attraction to each other.
The final similarity with how the couples are presented is that in the case of both Jerry and Lucy and Joel and Clementine, we are not sure whether or not the couples have had a happy ending or not. In The Awful Truth it is heavily suggested (though not fully shown due to the Hays code) that Jerry and Lucy have “eloped” for the night, but we do not know whether this means that the couple have definitely gotten back together, and even if they have, this only brings up more questions, as by law the couple are still technically divorced, as they have not had time to cancel the divorce. Joel and Clemetine on the other hand, we definitely know that the couple have gotten back together, as the final spoken words of the film are them agreeing to give the relationship a second chance. However the audience is left with a feeling of uncertainty as to whether or not this relationship will be a happy one or last very long at all.
This then leads us to the first of our differences, and that is the overall feeling that the audience gets concerning the couples by the end of their respective films. James Macdowell argues in his article The Happy Ending in Modern Romance Films, Vol 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that in a traditional comedy of remarriage such as The Awful Truth “there is Seldom any suggestion that the remarriage is likely to be an unsuccessful one – rather it is far more common for the antagonistic trails that the couple have undergone to appear to strengthen the relationship, suggesting that it may well be healthier this time around” (Macdowell 2007, 1). However Macdowell states in Eternal Sunshine “The Conclusion depicts a united romantic couple embarking on a relationship – but it also explicitly states that its characters’ subsequent relationship will likely finally fail for the same reasons as it did the first time”. (Macdowell 2007, 1). What Macdowell argues is that by the end of each film, the audience has a completely different feeling for the direction that the newly brought back together couples will go in, and this is reflected in the films themselves. In The Awful Truth, both Jerry and Lucy seem extremely overjoyed to be back together and this leaves the audience with a feeling that they will be together for a very long time. However, as seen through the almost glum and defeated dialogue of the two characters, it would seem that Joel and Clementine are almost “doomed” to repeat the mistakes of their first relationship, despite the fact that they have lists that one would hope would help them avoid such mistakes.
A major difference between the two couples is not so much what separates the couples, but who initiates the separation. In the case of both couples in both films the separation is brought about by a suspicion of infidelity. In the case of The Awful Truth, both Jerry and Lucy suspect each other of being unfaithful and this leads them to both agreeing to get a divorce. The feelings are mutual and so is the decision. However in Eternal Sunshine it is slightly more complicated. Only Joel suspects Clementine of cheating on him, and while this is never confirmed, Joel seems upset enough to insult Clementine, which then leads to Clementine storming out of his apartment, which then leads to Joel chasing after her in an attempt to apologise (keep in mind, we see this all through Joel’s perspective as his memory of this is being erased). The next Joel hears of Clementine she has already erased him from her memory. Therefor in this case, it is only Clementine who seems to initiate the separation.
Leading on from this, Jerry and Lucy both handle their divorce remarkably well, treating it almost as a break from each other, however Joel and Clementine, their break up is an extremely bitter and heart wrenching decision for both of them, so much so that they decide to get their memories of each erased rather than have to confront their feelings about the break up.
Quite an obvious difference between the two couples is the difference of knowledge. Jerry and Lucy are fully aware of who the other person is, and know a great deal about each other as they have been married for quite a few years. Joel and Clementine in their second attempt at their relationship, aside from their experiences from the past few days and the list of negatives their past selves have made of the other, they essentially don’t know each other. A minor but important difference, as it does make the chances of Joel and Clementine not repeating the same mistakes as in their last relationship quite low, there for enhancing Macdowell’s theory that the couple are “doomed to repeat their mistakes”.
The biggest difference in how the two couples are presented however can definitely be seen in the focus of the story. The Awful Truth is very much the story of Jerry and Lucy, we focus on the couple as the events are happening and we spend an equal amount of time with both of them. We also mostly spend our time following just the couple, we very rarely get to see how the couples divorce and subsequent attempt at sabotaging each other’s new lives affects the people around them, with the rare expectation of sometimes spending a scene with Dan and his mother. In Eternal Sunshine there is no doubt that the main character of the film is Joel. We also spend very little time observing Joel and Clementine as a couple in the present, in fact we see more of Joel’s memories version of Clementine that we do the actual Clementine. Interestingly however, we do get to spend a large amount of time in the present, watching the relationships of the members of the Lacuna Corporation and see how erasing both Clementine’s and Joel’s memories affects them. Essentially the way the couple is presented in The Awful Truth is that both Jerry and Lucy are main characters, while Eternal Sunshine is very much Joel’s story, and this is perhaps the biggest difference between how the couple are presented in both films.
While the couples in The Awful Truth and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind do have some major differences in how they are presented, it cannot be ignored that they do share some remarkable similarities. Edelstein’s claim that “Kaufman teleports the screwball genre into the 21st Century” (Edelstein 2004, 151) can be seen as almost entirely correct. Eternal Sunshine fits into almost all the classic examples (as defined by A.O Scott) of a “Comedy of Remarriage” of remarriage. Like The Awful Truth it has a couple “recover from the failure of their first union and eventually, after various humiliations and setbacks, constitutes a perfect one” (Scott 2004, 1). However it has a slightly more cynical twist for a slightly more cynical age, and instead of leaving us on a hopeful note, it instead leaves us on a more depressing, hopeless note that Joel and Clementine’s new relationship will fail in the exact same way as the last one did (at least according to Macdowell).
Joel Barish (played by Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) are a couple that meet at a friend’s beach party and immediately develop a connection as they are both outsiders at the party, sitting far away from other party goers. They soon enter quite a serious (they move in together and at one point even talk about having kids) and long term (2 years) relationship. However near the end of the relationship the two are constantly fighting, and after one particularly vicious shouting match, Clementine gets Joel erased from her memory by an organisation called the “Lacuna Corporation”, and when he finds out, Joel gets the same process done to him. However once the process has started, Joel realises he doesn’t want to forget Clementine at all, and fights against the process, which at first he seems to lose against. However soon after he’s had his memories of Clementine erased, he runs into her again and the two soon re-develop their initial attraction seen in the earlier memories (a very unique aspect of Eternal Sunshine is that most of the story is presented through Joel’s memories and not in chronological order). After discovering that they have both had their memories whipped after a failed relationship, the two decide to give their relationship a second chance.
Unlike Eternal Sunshine, The Awful Truth is presented in a much more straight forward, chronological way. Jerry Warriner and Lucy Warriner at the beginning of the film are a married couple who get a divorce after an argument of mutual jealously and suspicion as both members of the couple suspect the other of being unfaithful. The couple have 60 days to sort out their affairs with each other before the divorce is finalized, however by the end of those 60 days Jerry and Lucy realise that they cannot resist each other and at the end of the film end up sleeping together.
Now that we’ve seen the individual stories of both couples now we can look at the similarities. In both films we see a couple having a falling out, breaking up and then getting back together again. In his article Forget me not: The Genius of Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind David Edelstein explains – “The Philosopher Stanley Cavell has called the classic screwball movies like The Awful Truth (1937) “comedies of remarriage”, in which couples are rudely bounded from their Edenic connubial gardens and reunited (after a series of farcical/magical contrivances)”. (Edelstein 2004, 1) The Awful Truth definitely fits into the idea of a “Comedy of remarriage”, as it has a couple leading a seemingly blissfully happy life and after a misunderstanding the couple are separated and after a series of farcical/magical contrivances, for example, Lucy’s car breaking down, to the couple being escorted to Lucy’s Aunt’s cabin in the woods by two bumbling police officers, to the entire ending sequence which includes a troubling door and ends with the couple at last being reunited in bed. David Edelstein continues in his book to show that Eternal Sunshine is a modern comedy of remarriage, drawing a direct parallel with The Awful Truth. “In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, - screenwriter Charlie Kaufman teleports the screwball genre into the 21st century: It’s The Awful Truth turned inside out” (Edelstein 2004, 1). Indeed, if you look at the basic plot of Eternal Sunshine, we see a couple, Joel and Clementine living a fairly happy life, perhaps not as comfortable and idyllic as Jerry and Lucy (though we only see a small glimpse of this couples life before the break up), breaking up and getting back together because of magical contrivances, or in this case, Science Fiction contrivances with the Lacuna Company erasing the couples memories and Joel saving the idea of Clementine in his head and one of the assistants at the Lacuna Corporation, Mary, mailing all the case files from previous operations to her former clients, revealing to both individuals that they had previously been in a relationship, which is the catalyst for the two giving the relationship a second chance. Both the basic story arcs of Eternal Sunshine and The Awful Truth fit into the concept of the “Comedy or Remarriage”.
Outside of this idea of the “Comedy of remarriage” both couples seem to want to be together, despite the fact that the members of both relationships seem to get on each other’s nerves. In the case of The Awful Truth, this can be seen many times throughout the film. It can be seen at the beginning of the film when Jerry and Lucy are trading barbs over each other’s respective “unfaithfulness”, and after the two have broken up, Lucy is attempting to move on and is dating another man, “Dan” and Jerry spends most of his time embarrassing Lucy, however despite all this, the couple at the end of the film are shown still wanting to be together. In the case of Eternal Sunshine, Joel and Clementine are seen through the flashbacks to have a very unstable relationship, as Clementine (keep in mind this is mostly seen through Joel’s memories) often starts arguments with Joel that usually end in Clementine storming away from him, so unstable in fact, that by the time of the break up, the two have long lists of what they find unattractive and annoying of the other, seen through recordings done by the Lacuna Corporation. However, after the two have their memories erased and they each hear each other’s recordings, they decided to give the relationship a second chance.
The fact that both couples seem to want to be together despite the fact that they, on the surface, don’t seem to get on at all, shows a certain degree of natural attraction. At the beginning of Eternal Sunshine, we see Joel after having his memories of Clementine erased, running into Clementine, and the two hit it off pretty much straight away after a period of some awkwardness, almost exactly like how they met the first time (the beginning of the film does not show the first time they have been in a relationship). We get to see clearly that while they don’t seem to match on the surface, the two do have elements that the other finds attractive. In The Awful Truth, once Jerry and Lucy get the divorce settled, the two are always finding excuses to be around and visit the other. This is seen through Jerry’s many visits of the couple’s dog, which legally through the divorce agreement is Lucy’s, and Lucy telling Dan (her new lover) about a business agreement that Jerry has for them in order for Jerry to come over.
By the end of each film, we see the couple beginning their second attempt at being in a relationship, and in the case of both couples, they have the “advantage” of knowing the negative aspects and what personally annoys them the most about their partner. In the case of The Awful Truth, Jerry and Lucy have already been through a marriage and so know personally what they dislike about each other, and to some degree what annoys their partner. In Eternal Sunshine Joel and Clementine, even though they don’t personally remember their past relationship, each have a list of negative points that go into quite some detail on the other person, thanks to the Lacuna Corporation’s recordings before the process of memory erasing begins. Even though not all the information on the recordings is correct, it is very influenced on how the person speaking at the time of the recording felt, it is still useful for either Joel or Clementine to know what went wrong in their previous relationship.
In The Awful Truth, a large part of Jerry and Lucy’s relationship is the aspect of performance that comes with the relationship, present both when they are married and when they are getting their divorce finalised. They are always setting the other up for embarrassment when they are in groups and are both pretending that they are ok with the divorce. Interestingly enough, there is an aspect of performance in the relationship of Joel and Clementine, though it is mostly on Joel’s behalf, as seen when Joel fakes his own death to amuse Clementine and himself, even though in this particular case it backfires on Joel.
In both films there are two outside forces that are trying to keep the couples separated. The first is the “secondary romantic interest”. In the case of The Awful Truth this is Dan, the not as intelligent, but fun loving “cowboy” who is absolutely smitten by Lucy, however ultimately has his heart broken when he finds out Lucy does not completely share his sentiment. In contrast to quite pleasant character of Daniel, there is Patrick from Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. While Clementine is having her memory erased, Patrick falls in love with her, and instead of erasing all her memories of Joel, he places himself inside of the memories instead, so that she falls in love with him. However this backfire on him when this starts having negative effects on Clementine’s mental well-being, and ultimately he fails in winning her over as she gets back together with Joel by the end of the film. In the case of both films, the secondary romantic interest are more of a distraction for Lucy and Clementine, than a threat to the main romantic interests, Jerry and Joel.
The second outside force keeping the couple apart in both films is the time limit that they both have. In The Awful Truth this time limit is set up by the couple themselves, and it is the 60 days before their divorce is fully accepted by law. However, as seen by the end of the film, the couple ignore this obstruction and get back together anyway. The time limit in Eternal Sunshine is Joel having his memories of Clementine erased and him fighting to keep his memories of her. In the end Joel fails, however again with this film, this time limit is ultimately ignored as the couple end up back together in the end. This helps strengthen the fact that the couples seem to have some sort of natural attraction to each other.
The final similarity with how the couples are presented is that in the case of both Jerry and Lucy and Joel and Clementine, we are not sure whether or not the couples have had a happy ending or not. In The Awful Truth it is heavily suggested (though not fully shown due to the Hays code) that Jerry and Lucy have “eloped” for the night, but we do not know whether this means that the couple have definitely gotten back together, and even if they have, this only brings up more questions, as by law the couple are still technically divorced, as they have not had time to cancel the divorce. Joel and Clemetine on the other hand, we definitely know that the couple have gotten back together, as the final spoken words of the film are them agreeing to give the relationship a second chance. However the audience is left with a feeling of uncertainty as to whether or not this relationship will be a happy one or last very long at all.
This then leads us to the first of our differences, and that is the overall feeling that the audience gets concerning the couples by the end of their respective films. James Macdowell argues in his article The Happy Ending in Modern Romance Films, Vol 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that in a traditional comedy of remarriage such as The Awful Truth “there is Seldom any suggestion that the remarriage is likely to be an unsuccessful one – rather it is far more common for the antagonistic trails that the couple have undergone to appear to strengthen the relationship, suggesting that it may well be healthier this time around” (Macdowell 2007, 1). However Macdowell states in Eternal Sunshine “The Conclusion depicts a united romantic couple embarking on a relationship – but it also explicitly states that its characters’ subsequent relationship will likely finally fail for the same reasons as it did the first time”. (Macdowell 2007, 1). What Macdowell argues is that by the end of each film, the audience has a completely different feeling for the direction that the newly brought back together couples will go in, and this is reflected in the films themselves. In The Awful Truth, both Jerry and Lucy seem extremely overjoyed to be back together and this leaves the audience with a feeling that they will be together for a very long time. However, as seen through the almost glum and defeated dialogue of the two characters, it would seem that Joel and Clementine are almost “doomed” to repeat the mistakes of their first relationship, despite the fact that they have lists that one would hope would help them avoid such mistakes.
A major difference between the two couples is not so much what separates the couples, but who initiates the separation. In the case of both couples in both films the separation is brought about by a suspicion of infidelity. In the case of The Awful Truth, both Jerry and Lucy suspect each other of being unfaithful and this leads them to both agreeing to get a divorce. The feelings are mutual and so is the decision. However in Eternal Sunshine it is slightly more complicated. Only Joel suspects Clementine of cheating on him, and while this is never confirmed, Joel seems upset enough to insult Clementine, which then leads to Clementine storming out of his apartment, which then leads to Joel chasing after her in an attempt to apologise (keep in mind, we see this all through Joel’s perspective as his memory of this is being erased). The next Joel hears of Clementine she has already erased him from her memory. Therefor in this case, it is only Clementine who seems to initiate the separation.
Leading on from this, Jerry and Lucy both handle their divorce remarkably well, treating it almost as a break from each other, however Joel and Clementine, their break up is an extremely bitter and heart wrenching decision for both of them, so much so that they decide to get their memories of each erased rather than have to confront their feelings about the break up.
Quite an obvious difference between the two couples is the difference of knowledge. Jerry and Lucy are fully aware of who the other person is, and know a great deal about each other as they have been married for quite a few years. Joel and Clementine in their second attempt at their relationship, aside from their experiences from the past few days and the list of negatives their past selves have made of the other, they essentially don’t know each other. A minor but important difference, as it does make the chances of Joel and Clementine not repeating the same mistakes as in their last relationship quite low, there for enhancing Macdowell’s theory that the couple are “doomed to repeat their mistakes”.
The biggest difference in how the two couples are presented however can definitely be seen in the focus of the story. The Awful Truth is very much the story of Jerry and Lucy, we focus on the couple as the events are happening and we spend an equal amount of time with both of them. We also mostly spend our time following just the couple, we very rarely get to see how the couples divorce and subsequent attempt at sabotaging each other’s new lives affects the people around them, with the rare expectation of sometimes spending a scene with Dan and his mother. In Eternal Sunshine there is no doubt that the main character of the film is Joel. We also spend very little time observing Joel and Clementine as a couple in the present, in fact we see more of Joel’s memories version of Clementine that we do the actual Clementine. Interestingly however, we do get to spend a large amount of time in the present, watching the relationships of the members of the Lacuna Corporation and see how erasing both Clementine’s and Joel’s memories affects them. Essentially the way the couple is presented in The Awful Truth is that both Jerry and Lucy are main characters, while Eternal Sunshine is very much Joel’s story, and this is perhaps the biggest difference between how the couple are presented in both films.
While the couples in The Awful Truth and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind do have some major differences in how they are presented, it cannot be ignored that they do share some remarkable similarities. Edelstein’s claim that “Kaufman teleports the screwball genre into the 21st Century” (Edelstein 2004, 151) can be seen as almost entirely correct. Eternal Sunshine fits into almost all the classic examples (as defined by A.O Scott) of a “Comedy of Remarriage” of remarriage. Like The Awful Truth it has a couple “recover from the failure of their first union and eventually, after various humiliations and setbacks, constitutes a perfect one” (Scott 2004, 1). However it has a slightly more cynical twist for a slightly more cynical age, and instead of leaving us on a hopeful note, it instead leaves us on a more depressing, hopeless note that Joel and Clementine’s new relationship will fail in the exact same way as the last one did (at least according to Macdowell).
Filmography
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Directed by Michel Gondry [Film]. USA: Focus Features.
The Awful Truth (1937) Directed by Leo McCarey [Film]. USA: Columbia Pictures Corporation.
The Awful Truth (1937) Directed by Leo McCarey [Film]. USA: Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Bibliography
Edelstein, David. "Forget Me Not." Slate. Slate Magazine, 18 Mar. 2004. Web. 21 Dec. 2015.
Macdowell, James. "[Alternate Takes] The Happy Ending in Modern Romance Films, Vol. 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." [Alternate Takes] The Happy Ending in Modern Romance Films, Vol. 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Alternate Takes, 16 Nov. 2007. Web. 21 Dec. 2015.
Scott, A. O. "Charlie Kaufman's Critique of Pure Comedy." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Apr. 2004. Web. 21 Dec. 2015.
Macdowell, James. "[Alternate Takes] The Happy Ending in Modern Romance Films, Vol. 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." [Alternate Takes] The Happy Ending in Modern Romance Films, Vol. 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Alternate Takes, 16 Nov. 2007. Web. 21 Dec. 2015.
Scott, A. O. "Charlie Kaufman's Critique of Pure Comedy." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Apr. 2004. Web. 21 Dec. 2015.