I watched Andy Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind today.

How happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sun-shine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resigned.

-Alexander Pope, from Eloise to Abelard.

The movie is a creative story surrounding the relationship of a man, Joel, played by Jim Carrey, and Clementine, played by Kate Winslet. Because of the rocky nature of their relationship, after one year Clementine decides to erase all of her memories of Joel, without telling him. It was an impulsive decision to break up with him.

Joel decides to exact his revenge by following suit. But, as the memories disappear he realizes how much he treasures them, and a great deal of the movie takes place inside his head, as he frantically attempts to rescue whatever memories that he can, while the crew of the company he has hired works feverishly to finish the job he hired them to do.

The movie ends up being an enjoyable meditation on the nature of relationships, their troubles, and the solution to these troubles. It reminds me of the river Lethe, at the top of Purgatory in heaven. However, the erasure of memories in Dante had a nobler purpose. It was the final purgation of all evil, and the memories were re-instated with the holy context given to all of life in the vision of God that is the felicity of Paradise.

The movie is rated R, though, so it's to be approached with caution: it has a lot of swearing and some sexual content. That's not too suprising.