It is associated with harmony, freshness, and ambition, the presence of her roots only emphasizing the budding life of their connection. Green is the color of life, of renewal, of nature. The hair is long and grown out with significant roots showing, revealing the blonde underneath, and she pairs it with a bright orange sweatshirt. When Clementine and Joel first met, her hair is an acidic shade of green. It becomes a philosophical piece of cinematic art, and the best means of keeping track of where we are in Joel and Clementine’s relationship chronology comes down to one key element: Clementine’s hair.

Joel’s memories and conscious thoughts begin to blend, re-fabricating events from the relationship. The chronology begins simply enough, but as the erasing process digs deeper and brings Joel’s older memories closer to the forefront, timelines shift and weave in varying directions. We see how their instant chemistry ended in mutual disappointment, the personality traits that clashed, and eventually, the love they maintained for one another despite it all. The core of the film is then spent watching the downward spiral of their relationship as it retreats in time. Joel learns that Clementine hired a company that erases memories to delete him from her brain, and in an act of retaliation, he signs up for the same treatment. She’s become part of him through the undefinable forces of human emotion, and it’s all before the opening credits start.įrom that point, the film instantly jumps forward only to start moving backward. He leaves her only to end up offering her a ride home, and exits her house only to pick up the phone the minute he steps through his own door. While Joel makes every attempt to shutter himself from the growing magnetism of his new acquaintance, he simultaneously can’t seem to shake her. Joel’s voice-over narration questions why he has to fall in love with everyone who shows him the faintest bit of attention, as Clementine’s bubbling personality makes it obvious she’s rarely less than its center.

The two instantly attract, as tends to be the case with opposites. The story begins simple enough, with awkward and socially-repressed Joel (Jim Carrey) meeting extroverted and spunky Clementine (Kate Winslet) through the innocent cliché of a long walk on the beach. It’s hard to conceive putting a film like this together. A screenplay like Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is a masterpiece of construction.

Clementine eternal sunshine