![]() ![]() Kaufman’s scripts have some of the best lines, but it’s clear that it’s not just because they sound good, or read well. She even screams, what is now a famous quote that explicitly excludes her from the MPDG trope: In fact, all of her decisions throughout the film are solely for herself⏤whether that’s staying out late when she’s bored with Joel, ignoring her new, occasionally annoying, boyfriend, Patrick (played by Elijah Wood), she does what she wants. The inciting incident of the entire movie is Joel (Jim Carrey), finding out that she has erased him from her memory. Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindĪside from writing one of the greatest scripts of all time, Charlie Kaufman can also create a female lead that is dripping with eccentricity, weirdness, and charm, while not being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl at all.Ĭlementine (played by Kate Winslet) is the agent of change in her life. And learn something new about herself, regardless of what the protagonist is doing. She’s real, and the film provides space for her to actually be who she is. I’m a big fan of this character, and this story. But she doesn’t exist in his fantasy world. So he does have a transformation because of her. But she again shatters his belief system by telling him love does exist, it just wasn’t with him. Now, he knows for sure that love can’t be real. And even more so when he discovers that she’s engaged⏤he can’t believe it. He’s inevitably crushed when she breaks it off. ![]() And when they get together, Tom can’t believe she’s picked him, and hopes to change her perspective on love. In the beginning of the film, she is a free-spirit, an unwilling-to-settle- down-kind-of-girl. This is a much more dynamic character that aids in the progression of the entire story rather than just Tom’s ideas. But it’s only because she is existing for herself, being true to herself and serving her own needs, shattering his fantasy of her, that he learns anything at all. She does technically, help the protagonist, Tom, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, see something new. While she is often considered a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, here it’s a little more complicated. One example of this mistaken MPDG is Zooey Deschanel’s character in 500 Days of Summer. He meets quirky Sam and finally feels something again. The plot shows the protagonist coming back home for his mother’s funeral grappling more with his complete indifference towards her death than the pain of it. But there’s no real transformation for her. ![]() And I love Sam, she’s smart, funny, experiences her own pain and struggles, (is also a pathological liar)⏤she isn’t a flat character by any means. Of course she serves the story, but the story is all about him. So it’s not super surprising, though well-intentioned, that the love-interest, Sam Feehan, is there to serve him. Zach Braff writes the film, directs it, stars in it, and has a hand in producing it. Especially lately, with the current climate-so I’ll be the first to say, I love Garden State regardless of the fact that it employs one of the most obvious examples of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I’m a big believer in just enjoying films, and not over analyzing every little thing. ![]()
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