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Most Valuable Performances: Kate Winslet


Clementine. We have all known a Clementine in our lives. The person that we thought was "the one" but eventually the newness fades away and we see these Clementines for what they are. Fragile human beings who have the same worries and fears as the rest of us. They aren't perfect and we should never have expected them to be.

What makes Winslet's performance so impressive is that we never not once see Kate Winslet, Academy Award winning actress. We see the one who broke our hearts. Winslet only plays one half of the onscreen couple in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, yet ultimately she is the sole focus. Joel (Jim Carrey) can't stand knowing that she had him erased from his memory so he seeks to perpetrate the same act against her.

What Joel comes to find out and what we already know is that you can't remove that presence from your life. These people are an influence on our lives and what wisdom they place with us as they depart should not be dispensed.

The arguments, the intimacy, the mundane, all of it matters. It makes us human. Clementine is indispensable from Joel's existence and Winslet's raw, and true portrayal makes that clear.

That Clementine and Joel's break-up has such a personal effect on the audience is a testament to Winslet's complete presentation of a woman that has no ulterior motives, she just wants to be happy. We need for her to be happy with Joel as well. And the last scene that parts us from the film is a bittersweet moment as it gives us an opportune moment to reflect on our second chances.


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