Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Love, Loss and the Fade to White

Siskel and Ebert meet Joan Didion in Auteur, a unique series that combines in-depth film criticism with personal autobiography. Each book in the series examines a single movie through a critical and historical lens, filtered through the author's creative and emotional connection to the film. The result is a literary memoir that celebrates some of our most beloved and influential movies.

Two decades ago, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind pierced the hearts of audiences with its poignant autopsy of a relationship gone wrong. Yet depending on the angle with which it’s watched, the film looks completely different: happy or sad, triumphant or tragic, therapeutic or heart-wrenching.

Combining film exegesis with memoir, author and YouTube celebrity Maia Wyman takes a look at Eternal Sunshine as she comes to terms with the tumultuous dissolution of a relationship in her life. Wyman takes the reader on a journey through the making of the film, from inception to production, to internet popularity and beyond. She dissects what the film means to fans, as well as the people who made it—some of whom were, themselves, grappling with difficult breakups. Wyman comes to realize, as the main characters, Joel and Clementine do, that no matter how hard we try, in the end, our painful memories are as important as the happy ones.