10 Movies You Need To Watch Twice To Completely Understand

3. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Here€™s another Charlie Kaufman written script, and with good reason. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind begins with a 15 minute prologue detailing the end of the film, but it may as well have been the beginning, or even the middle. It€™s all about inevitable cycles of life and acceptance of ourselves and others. Eternal Sunshine is a film with many plot threads going on simultaneously. When you€™ve watched it enough times and can follow them all it actually feels remarkably simple. Jim Carrey stars as Joel Barish, an ordinary man who simply wants to forget his troubling ex-girlfriend Clementine, played by Kate Winslet. He undergoes treatment to get rid of memories so he won€™t be plagued with painful nostalgia. However, part way through, he changes his mind. As we revisit memories, distort them or erase them, it€™s difficult to keep track of the timeline and which characters are aware of what€™s going on. As it dips in and out of reality and Joel€™s head, it becomes even more convoluted. Especially as outside his head, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood are having a story of their own. And that€™s only satisfying on the second viewing. Eternal Sunshine is a wonderfully romantic, honest and heartfelt film, a true representation of what relationships are like in all their highs and lows. It€™s a film that really feels joy and sorrow. Thankfully, Charlie Kaufman finally picked up a well deserved Oscar for his script, which was co-written by director Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth.