She was unique, independent, strong, attractive, and quite interesting.
Erh…you can be “unique” and still be a crappy human being. As far as being strong goes…she was so “strong” she had her memory of Jim Carrey’s character erased so she could evade the reality of what happened 
.
As far as being attractive…compare her to Elastigirl in The Incredibles.
They are great valuers, acting passionately towards life and each other.
Until their relationship falls apart due to the woman’s boredom and Jim Carrey’s inability to please her. As far as valuing goes, Jim Carrey values her tremendously and he realizes that all to late.
The problem is weak characters trying to evade their crappy reality. Jim Carrey has a relationship that is VERY up at times and at rock botom at other times. VERY unstable relationship which is why it fell apart. The people are fundamentally lost. They don’t know what they want or what they need to do to get it until it is too late. Great Gen X-er movie I guess if that is what you are looking for.
the movie I saw was essentially about a man trying to save his relationship with the woman he loves.
He tries…and fails. They break up and both get their memories erased and during the actual erasing process he tries to “hide” inside good memories before they get erased. He also is “helped” by his ex-girlfriend as she talks to him while the memories are erased which is just a figment of his imagination as you can’t TALK with someone who doesn’t even remember that you exist anymore. This is where you get the surrealism. A lot of impossible things like him getting sucked down the drain of the sink and into another memory happen because a large part of the movie takes place in his mind. Lots of non-reality and non-realistic concepts abound in this movie.
If you notice, these depraved people, as you call them, were essentially opposed to the heroes–their depravity (i.e. not doing their jobs properly) was the main cause of problems for the hero (who wanted to save the memories and his relationship, but couldn’t because their irrationalities and avoidance of their job cut off his escape).
Why would he want to save the memories? I understand the old saying “It is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all.” I also understand that this is what they are going for.
The only problem is that the characters were so caught up in their mediocre and non-fulfilling jobs/lives that their relationship crumbled due to the fact that they don’t really know what they need in their lives or how to get it.
Except the one with the main characters in it, which ended in a happy reunion.
It was only happy because the main characters were incable of remembering how crappy their relationship was and why exactly they broke up. The happy reunion was based on a total denial of reality. BTW…the “happy reunion” you speak of wasn’t really happy OR a reunion.
Jim Carrey feels an inexplicable urge to go to the beach and he meets the girl again and neither of them know who the other one is…so they can’t really be “happy” about seeing each other again. It also isn’t a reunion because at that time they are once again "abula rasa.
I don’t know how closely you followed the movie, but based on previous scenes and the personality of the main female character, the scene you’re referring to basically meant that she thought their relationship was worth it–and she wanted to try it. It didn’t mean anything like their relationship was damned or that there was no point–quite the opposite.
Not at all.
The point was that there were good times and bad. When you get rid of ALL of your memories having to do with a bad relationship, you get rid of the good times as well. A sort of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”.
Apparently the good times were “good enough” to go through with a relationship that they knew would eventually fall apart again at the end. She says as much.
NOTHING fundamentally changed about either of their characters that would lead to a different outcome. NOTHING. The only way the outcome could possible be different is if Jim Carrey or the girl retained SOME memory of what caused their break up in the first place.
If you put 2 and 2 together, you will ALWAYS get four. The only way the outcome becomes different is if your variables in the equation change or get something extra added on, subtracted, multiplied, or divided out.
So yeah…their relationship was indeed damned to failure for the second time.
It’s a revolting sense of life because he struggles to save his memories of the woman he loves, and the movie ends with his triumph and their reunion?
A triumph of metaphysical evasion that results in a struggle to save memories that ends up in failure. He DOESN’T remember and they reunite to have the same stuff happen all over again.
Not really a triumph in my book.