Memento Review

Memento


Christopher Nolan was born on the 30th July 1970 in London and has directed many other successful films such as Insomnia 2002, The Prestige in 2006 and the rebooting of the world renowned Batman series. More recently Inception last year, he is also the founder or ‘Syncopy Films’ a production company. His main area of work has been around the thriller genre and all have the recurring theme that the characters in films usually gain a physical or psychological handicap over the course of the film in ‘The Prestige', Angier gets a crippled leg while Borden loses two fingers; in 'The Dark Knight', Salvatore Maroni gets a crippled leg; in 'Insomnia', Dormer gets insomnia; Whilst in ‘Memento’ Leonard gains a memory handicap, the event of which is shown in flashback during the film.

The film’s first meaningful action scene, is watching Leonard shooting a man, who we find out’s called Teddy real name Officer Gemmell. It then proceeds to go back in time through a series of flashbacks where we discover, Leonard’s handicap of short term memory loss and ultimately come to find out, this is the reason he is so relentless in trying to find the killer of his wife. He creates an alias called Sammy Jenkis, who he believes he is trying to help cure his own memory loss. But this is just a distraction, as Leonard cannot fully accept it is himself who has the issues, giving his life a purpose. His conditions means the only way to remember people or significant things in his life is by taking pictures and tattooing ‘facts’ onto his body. This is why even though Teddy does eventually talk to Lenny, explaining that he is in fact here to protect him, his inability to make new memories after the ‘incident’ means he takes Teddy to be his ‘John G’ and ends up killing him.

The opening sequence is very powerful, and makes you think. It firstly introduces the Polaroid pictures, that turn out to be vital for Leonard to comprehend and understand what is going on and most importantly who to trust. The pictures themselves give subtle suggestions of what will/has happened, this keeps audience fixed to the screen wondering who this ‘bloody’ character is. But like his memories they fade, this is similar to the psychological impediment Leonard faces. It then shows close ups of running blood and a pair of glasses, leaving you more questions than answers. Panning out you see a guy getting shot, this is when the film goes back in time and follows Leonards quest to find ‘his’ John G.



This is just a snippet from the chase scene, but I believe it is a key scene to illustrate, Leonard’s mental impediment whilst including a stereotypical action scene. Arguably, with the consistent use of guns and the number of murders, you can say action is one of the most prominent sub genres in the film. It first uses a tracking shot from behind to follow Leonard running, it then pans round to show the action from his perspective, showing his expression when he realises he is being chased, and isn’t the ‘chaser’. A caravan park isn’t your stereotypical location for a high- energy chase/shooting scene. But it shows that it could happen anywhere. The editing is slick and runs succinctly; this has to be the case to portray the speed of the chase.



Another key scene is at the beginning of the Lenny’s hunt, but at the end of the film. It sticks to the thriller conventions of the protagonist in peril, as he (Teddy) becomes the victim of Lenny’s messed up mind. Teddy tries to reason with Leonard, explaining that he is here to help and gives him an address to continue his chase for his wife’s killer (yet again). But, Lenny’s journeys led him to believe Teddy is the ‘enemy’ as such this is shown as he writes ‘don’t believe his lies’ on the back of the photograph. The story does give you false impressions that Teddy is the culprit, but we find out it’s all in Leonards mind, it’s in fact he is making up all these stories in his head. His inability to make new memories leads to killing the wrong guy in Jimmy.
Ultimately, I feel this film is very believable, and leaves messages with the audience to think about. The idea of Leonard’s condition being so real and true-to life intensifies the film, keeping the audience on edge. I like the fact Christopher Nolan keeps it original by telling the story in reverse order so the audience can capture the way Leonard see’s things but is able to keep too the key thriller conventions.