12 Movies You Didn’t Notice Were About Mental Illness
8. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
At first glance Joel and Clementines mental health issues might be clear-cut: he, a loner and introvert, and she, an impulsive free spirit, could easily be seen as suffering from anxiety and bipolar disorder respectively depending on freely you interpret it, or the less than normal aspects of their characters could just be personality quirks. But look more deeply into Kaufmans film, and youll see its more a metaphor for Alzheimers than any other mental illness. Lacunas selective memory erasure procedure, which Joel and Clementine undergo to wipe each other from their memories after the end of their relationship, and their shock at not remembering each other when they discover what theyd done bears all too many similarities with the experiences of Alzheimers sufferers and their families. Its a sweetly sad film anyway but looking at Eternal Sunshine as an allegory for Alzheimers adds a whole new layer of melancholy.
