Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

"'How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned"

IMDB Rating: 8.4

Would you erase the memory of a past relationship if you had your heart's broken? Based on an absurd premise but grounded in real emotion, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about a man who wishes to erase his ex-girlfriend from his memory after he finds out she erased him first. Life isn't always that easy, as Joel discovers: as he's erasing Clementine from his memory, he's also also erasing some of the best part of his life. Joel starts to fight the memory erasing in a desperate effort to protect what he has discovered he loves most about life ... Clementine. A beautifully structured film, which has the story going both backwards and forwards, that always reminds us how precious our memories truly are.

Before Sunset (2004)

"You were, for me, that night - Everything I always dreamt of in life"

IMDB Rating: 8.0

Amazingly effective in its simplicity. Two people meet on a train and spend a romantic night together in Vienna - talking, walking, philosophizing and falling in love. Ten years later they meet again by happenstance. That's the premise for Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, a lovely tone poem that stands as a bookend to 1994's Before Sunrise. It didn't seem likely or possible that Richard Linklater could strike gold twice but sequel is every bit as worthwhile as the original.