When you add the deleted scenes from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind you tend to see Joel in a different light. Instead of being he kind of guy that’s shy, not too sure of himself, and essentially the guy you want to root for, the deleted scenes show that he’s impulsive, insecure, and less than what we thought. The movie it a bit hard to understand if you’re so used to linear films since the act of erasing memories can begin to mess with things that we think are stable and otherwise concrete. Trying to forget one thing with or without help can alter the manner in which you view the world and the way in which the world reacts to what you choose to deny or accept.
In the movie we see Joel get himself in to a memory-induced mess that, with the help of the deleted scenes, only gets more messy since it shows that he’s not this romantic person that wants to find the balance between himself and Clementine, but is instead looking for someone that can satisfy him like Naomi does while offering something different. In other words he wants the best of both things that he can get and is just impulsive enough to break up with the woman that was steadfast and loyal to pursue the woman he just met and knows so very little about as of yet.
I’ve had friends like Joel in the past that would act innocent and shy around new women, but if those women showed any interest they would be on to their next conquest like Tarzan swinging from one vine to another. This is of course kind of a loose analogy but the idea is that a person ditches the person they’re with in order to move on to the next, unknown part of their life that offer a good chance of something new but not a guarantee of something better. That is what strikes me as odd about Joel. He seems to want that deep connection that he had with Naomi but really thinks that he can pursue Clementine and begins speaking to her before he even lets go of Naomi.
That does tend to make a person look at someone in a very different light. Because of those deleted scenes a viewer can then assume that Joel isn’t so much a good, honest man trying to find meaning in his life through the attraction he shares with Clementine, but is instead kind of a jerk that gives up a good relationship to move towards something that could be a little more exciting. It’s almost a grass is greener on the other side kind of thing it seems like, a desire to know just how someone else lives and what it’s like. The problem with that is looking back you tend to think that you might have made a mistake somewhere the could have saved you a lot of grief.
There’s no way to erase memories that leave that kind of emotional scar.
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