10 Great Movies You Didn't Understand The First Time

8. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has a penchant for writing wildly creative screenplays and his take on memory and relationships was no different in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Ostensibly about a couple who realize they've erased the memory of each other from their minds, the surreal nature of the film makes it very hard to completely grasp in a singular viewing.

To make things more complicated is Joel's actual journey through his memory. Thanks to shifting locations and some practical effects work, the experiences are very vivid but also hard to grasp in the moment. Only when everything is said and done can you pull back and see the bigger scope of what was going on inside his brain. The newly-developing relationship between Joel and Clementine especially, starts making a lot more sense in later viewings once all of the context has been understood.

Eternal Sunshine is hardly beyond understanding, but it really requires another viewing to completely appreciate it and make sense of all its layers.

 
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Connor loves movies, comics, and TV, and is trying to write for people who feel the same way. When he's not sitting on the couch with his laptop, you might find him lying in his bed with his laptop.