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In a bizarre, dreamlike state, Joel relives highlights from his romance with “Clem” and tries to elude the surreal, memory-zapping efforts of Dr. He realizes that losing bittersweet memories is more painful than living with them. As the bad times slowly give way to earlier, more hopeful experiences, Joel decides he doesn’t want to let those memories go. Once sedated, he begins reliving the most recent, most volatile episodes from their relationship first. He wants Clementine excised from his mind. Joel is crushed and pursues the procedure himself. Mierzwiak, a brain surgeon able to isolate undesirable memories and eliminate them. Two years have passed and Clementine has lost patience with Joel, inspiring her to have portions of her memory erased by Dr. But before we see their relationship blossom, we learn that it’s already over. She also dwells in constant fear that she’s not living life to the fullest and encourages Joel to take risks. Then his lack of spontaneity meets its match in Clementine, a flaky, moody extrovert with a penchant for neon dye jobs. He can’t even make eye contact with women he doesn’t know. Joel Barish is a scruffy sad sack passively trudging through his mundane life.