Winner: Kate Winslet —
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Brief Synopsis: Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski couldn’t be more different. He’s an introverted, soft-spoken poet who only shares his thoughts inside his private notebook, and she’s an impulsive, free-spirited book clerk at Barnes & Noble who dyes her hair vibrant colors. But fate seems to have brought these two together... and it may have to work it’s magic again. After two years of dating, Clementine goes to an agency called Lacuna Inc. to have her memories of Joel erased. Depressed by her decision, Joel opts to undergo the same procedure, but in the middle of his mind being wiped, his subconscious regrets it and fights to hold onto Clem’s memory. The narrative is told in non-chronological order, as time is reversed and in Joel’s head and he realizes what made him first fall in love with Clem. How transcendent is love? It’s as eternal as sunshine on a spotless mind... if Alexander Pope has anything to say about it.

Kate Winslet has kind of made a career out of playing disturbed/tragic romantic characters — Rose in Titanic, Ophelia in Hamlet, Sylvia in Finding Neverland, Hanna in The Reader, and of course... Rita in Flushed Away (kidding!) — but I doubt any role will be as charmingly zany as Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In a movie that explores how love and memory transform the other (the narrative is nonlinear, told through Joel’s scientifically-erased memories of his ex-girlfriend), it’s fitting that Clementine’s character is someone who feels both fastened into one personality and also destined to develop into an undiscovered person. It’s a contradiction, I know, but it’s the nature of the beast — our personalities are always changing in small, unexpected ways that we don’t notice until we take the time to think about what we were like 5…10…15 years ago. 

As we get to know Clementine through Joel’s memories (in addition to the opening train scene, which happens in the present time after Joel has all of his memories erased of her), two things happen for the audience: we understand why Joel is attracted to her, and we understand why their relationship had fit together (and could potentially fit again). The main reason is that Clementine and Joel balance each other out, and are both examples to their partner of an aspect of themselves they wish they could be. Clementine is assertive, impulsive, and cheery; Joel is shy, introspective, and self-pitying. Clementine could stand to be more introspective and Joel should be more assertive, and when they’re with each other, they actually find ways to bring out good qualities that they otherwise lack — despite their arguments and seemingly clashing personalities. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, however, could not function without the strength of Kate Winslet in the role of Clementine. If the audience is put off by Clementine’s sarcastic, somewhat confrontational tone (and the same can be said for Joel’s morose attitude), then the romance falls completely flat and with it, the purpose of the movie. But Kate Winslet delivers Clementine with sensitivity and grace and wit along with everything else previously mentioned, which creates a uniquely complex character that is often hard to find in romantic comedies.