18. Joel & Dr. Mierzwiak - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
There are many moments in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that make us feel like a hit of acid we never actually took is beginning to set in, but there is one moment that really makes the audience do a triple-take. When Joel (Jim Carrey) is revisiting the memory when he first discussed erasing his memory with Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), the scene is dark and the camera pans back and forth to whoevers talking. Its when the camera shifts back to Joel a second time that an eerie feeling comes over us. We cant help but ask ourselves Was he wearing that hat before? Although it is done in one take, the character changes physically whenever we see him again. Its a wonderful way to recreate the unreliable nature of our memory. Havent we all had that moment of doubt when trying to recall a moment or wanted to shudder at an instance of deja vu? And thats what we do in this scene. We shudder and doubt ourselves. And it doesnt help that they revisit the office scene again briefly later in the film. Creating this scene was no small feat either. Jim Carrey was adamant that it couldnt be done. Take after take, he ran around the set changing clothes only to no make it back to his first mark. But with the directors persistence they got the shot and bent our minds.