Ordinary Love

December 25th is the day when Christmas comes. 

For Americans, this is the most important holiday, and for people in the film industry, this is also the most important day because this day means the last week of releases arrives.

According to the annual practice, during the Christmas period, some good movies will be released one after another. 

In the last week, big-budget movies are often not released. At this time, some movies rushing to prepare for the awards season will rush to release them on a small scale. 

For movie fans, these movies are more worthy of attention.

Just like this year, there is a movie like this. Levi's film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is released at this time of the year.

At this time last year, Levi's movie Lost in Translation was released on a small scale, and this time this year, his new film is also released on a small scale. 

Although there were only more than 30 movie theaters open, this did not affect the enthusiasm of movie fans. When Levi's movie was released, fans still came to the movie theater early to watch the movie.

Levi's love movies are quite good. Especially this one, Levi himself said that the movie is in the style of Emily - how could you miss such a movie?

Therefore, many couples chose to go to the cinema during Christmas and enjoy a movie. Couples have always been one of the main people watching movies, and their enthusiasm has made the cinema almost full.

The screen went dark, and the movie started after the short credits. On the dim screen, the light began to brighten, and the movie started.

At this time, people's emotions were aroused.

The story of the movie seems quite monotonous. A man, Joel, rises from his bed. For unknown reasons, he went to Montauk. After the movie started, the man's plain voice introduced his situation; everything seemed very ordinary. Not only is the story bland, but even the man's voice and his story seemed equally bland.

Moreover, the style of this movie is also very strange. The movie's tone differs greatly from Levi's previous movies' bright and vivid tones. The cold gray and black make the whole picture look lifeless. 

This also makes people see a slight difference in the movie from Levi's previous movies.

This movie is supposed to be about a love story, but the male protagonist who appears in the movie definitely has nothing to do with being handsome. 

He was rather ordinary, both in appearance and dressing up, and the unremarkable lifestyle in the self-narration seems to prove he is an ordinary person.

However, this is the protagonist of the story - this story, what does it want to talk about? Is such a boring male protagonist really the protagonist of a love story?

With doubts, people continued to watch the movie, and at this time, on the platform, the heroine, Clementine, appeared.

The way she looked she looked extremely eye-catching, wearing an orange down jacket and dyed blue hair. All of them immediately drew attention to her. 

This kind of dressing up is not very common even in ordinary life, let alone in such a bleak movie. Such a "dazzling" person appears, and people can tell at a glance that she is unusual.

If the dullness of the male protagonist surprised people, then the excessive brilliance of the heroine also surprised people.

Is this the heroine? People have more questions. According to the introduction, the male protagonist should be a person who lives a fairly regular life. How could someone who lives an ordinary life fall in love with such a woman?

This looks incredible.

But something incredible happened. As they boarded the train, the woman who was just looking at the male protagonist curiously on the platform began to take the initiative to contact him.

It was just a brief encounter, and like all love movies, they fell in love. However, people began to discover the charm of the male and female protagonists at this time. 

The heroine who took the initiative to strike up a conversation was not a stupid woman. On the contrary, she had rare enthusiasm and frankness in her. 

During this process, the male protagonist always had a gentle smile and responded to her words, but his calm tone showed his tolerance and generosity towards others.

The charms of these two people were all revealed in just a few minutes.

Everything in their communication was normal, and everything fell into place. There are no special, amazing scenes or particularly charming characters, but it is harmonious. 

The honest male protagonist and the passionate heroine met like this. It was as if the two knew from the beginning that they would meet each other and fall in love with each other.

Everything seems so ordinary, but it seems too romantic to be true.

And during this process, the movie's tone gradually became brighter: it was cast in a romantic color due to its shooting techniques.

Like all love movies, such a heroine makes the hero's heart flutter. When he walked out of the train station, he took the initiative to walk up to her and asked if she could give him a lift. This was a rare display of his proactive side.

After that, the relationship between the two people immediately deepened. Like all love at first sight, their love process was so romantic. It didn't take long for the two of them to fall deeply in love with each other.

However, at this moment, Joel, who was waiting for the heroine Clementine downstairs to get something, was called by someone else.

"Do you need help?"

The seemingly simple question made him stunned for a moment. 

He didn't understand why someone would ask him this question as if he didn't understand why he went to Montauk and why he would fall in love with this strangely dressed woman at first sight.

Everything seems to have its own will.

If once is an accident and twice is a coincidence, then if it happens more than three times, there must be something wrong.

At this moment, the title began to appear on the screen.

Looking at the watch, 17 minutes have passed since the beginning of the movie. People were quite surprised by this extremely long title sequence.

Could it be said that this is to show people their love story in an all-round way? But what about the fantasy elements in this movie? Shouldn't those things be more important? People want to see these things, but why can't they see them at all now?

If it were just a romance movie, people would be very satisfied if it was filmed to this extent. Being able to bring such two seemingly impossible people together shows the director's skill. However, it was this Levi movie, and people were not satisfied - they wanted more.

With some doubts, people continued to watch.

When the credits passed, and the movie screen cut back again, the male protagonist was already chatting with his friends. The topic of their chat was the upcoming Valentine's Day, and it seemed that the male protagonist was a little uneasy about what to give to his girlfriend: he and his girlfriend had a fight.

This result was not unexpected. His girlfriend's temper seemed completely different from his. Their contradiction is not surprising.

However, attentive viewers seemed to have noticed something at this time: when the protagonist was flipping through the diary at the beginning, he mentioned the date, and at that time, it was clearly just after Valentine's Day. But now, Valentine's Day is approaching again. Could it be said that their love has lasted for more than a year?

These questions did not let people reflect too much. Next, the male protagonist bought a gift and wanted to apologize to his girlfriend.

However, when he met his girlfriend, he discovered that his girlfriend had already found a new love. 

Moreover, what was even more unimaginable to him was that his girlfriend looked at him as if she had never known him.

Is there anything more painful than being betrayed by your girlfriend? Especially for the audience who just saw how they fell in love, Joel's pain in the movie seems to penetrate directly through the screen and reach their hearts.

Joel, who was in great pain, complained to his friend. However, his friend was not able to help. On the contrary, he and his wife quarreled. Watching the quarrel between his friend and his wife, Joel felt even more depressed. 

When a person's love life is frustrated, and he sees that others are also unhappy, the pain can be contagious.

However, he was still depressed when he saw the advertisement for Lacuna Clinic.

This weird name made Joel begin to understand something. With a glimmer of hope, he went to the Lacuna Clinic, hoping to get a negative answer. 

Unfortunately, as he expected, the news here was the same as he had guessed: his girlfriend went to the Lacuna Clinic and erased her memory, so she forgot about him.

Obviously, his girlfriend chose a more radical approach to the failure of love than he did.

Joel found it difficult to accept such news. He desperately asked the Lacuna Clinic to treat him to forget about Clementine. According to the doctor's instructions, he brought everything about Clementine to the clinic, and then, according to the request of the clinic doctor Howard, he prepared to clear his memory of Clementine.

Dr. Howard chose to agree. After going through seemingly simple preparations, he also wanted to erase Joel's memory.

All of this originally seemed quite bizarre - how could the memory be erased? This doesn't look like something in a typical movie at all. However, just like the scenes in Emily, with the changes in color, the transition of scenes, the romance of love, and the guidance of shooting methods in the previous movies, people do not find this surprising.

This is a credit to the filming.

Just after the instrument was placed on Joel's head, in a trance, Joel seemed to leave his body and come to the house where he was a few minutes ago.

Suddenly, it dawned on him: this was his memory.

The cleaning process has already begun.

*****

Thanks and kudos for my patreons 

Scott DePaepe

MMMCMXCIX, or 3,999

Britanna

Marcelo Maia

Danny York

Mandy G

DragonEz

You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.