10. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey sets the tone for this list when his character Joel Barish says near the beginning of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, "Random thoughts for Valentine's Day 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies. To make people feel like crap." Michel Gondry's unusual take on romantic love throws the viewer into a near future where technology has reached a point to enable us to erase any unwanted memories. When Joel Barish realizes the love of his life, the free-spirited Clementine (Kate Winslet) has used the services of Lacuna, Inc to erase from her mind all traces of their relationship, he sets out to do the same to himself. But as the erasing process goes ahead, Joel comes to realise that amnesia isn't the answer, and finds himself battling with his subconscious to cling to events from the past. Gondry's background in quirky music videos combined with a sharp script from Charlie (Being John Malkovich) Kaufmann is a sure-fire combination guaranteed to result in an eccentric film, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is without a doubt one of the most unique perspectives on love and memory. Beginning at the end, with Joel and Clementine meeting up on a beach not realizing that they are former lovers, much of the film takes place inside Joel's mind as Lacuna, Inc delete his memories, and the concept allows for some visually inventive scenes as Joel's past recollections begin to merge and fragment around him. Joel and Clementine are perhaps the luckiest protagonists in this list - at least there's a suggestion that things might work out for them the second time around. The characters in the following films aren't about to have quite such an easy time of things...