Review:Memento

Review-Memento

Christopher Nolan was born on 30 July 1970 in London and he a director of thriller films. He is most famous for directing Memento (2000), remaking of insomnia (2002), the prestige (2006), Inception (2010) and the batman film franchise. He has won many awards such as golden globes etc. for his films. He mainly directs thriller films. Also have director thriller films such as the prestige, Memento and Inception which have quite difficult to understand which a little more exciting.

Memento is a thriller that is about a guy called Lenard (main Character) who has got a condition of short term memory loss which he can only remember things for 15 minutes, after an accident involving his wife being killed and he got hit over the head be an attacker. So the film traces his memories backwards and the film itself is filmed backwards to show how Lenard cannot remember who everyone. So he takes photos to remind who each person is and writes down everything that he needs to know. However Lenard has already taken revenge on someone called John G but has forgotten so he kills a person called teddy but who is really another John G so that the begin of the film he kills him but actually he kills him at the end the film is going backwards.

The opening sequence of Memento introduces the thriller genre well because it answers all the conventions of a thriller opening. One way it does that is that it leaves questions for the audience to find to make them to watch the rest of the film. The story does short of evolve around a crime that has already been committed before and how the main character hunts for revenge for the attackers who killed his wife. The opening sequence shows the main character holding photo of a memory that every time it shakes the picture fades this symbolises that the short term memory loss of the main character point of view we are being put into the film in his position. Also the conventions of the thriller film are that the antagonist weakness is shown of his memory loss. Also there is a common theme of identity of the main Lenard who he really is and there is a question that is raised in the film be other characters of weather he is who says he is in the film.

One key scene in Memento that clearly shows the thriller conventions is at the beginning at when the film plays backwards to emphasize his condition also it looks ambiguous because you do not know what is going on when it seems at the beginning of the film when he kills Teddy to when it plays him not shooting him and Teddy comes in the throughout the film. Also some of the characters such as Natalie and other characters seem to be persuasive manage to het Lenard to help them. Also it is ambiguous because there is no clue in what the scene or what the film is about but it leaves that unit later so that you have to watch the film before you can understand it.

Another key scene in the film is at the end of the film when Teddy tells Lenard to go to this address where a John G is so that Lenard can take revenge again on his wife’s death. It sticks to the thriller conventions because it makes protagonist seem in peril because he is being beaten up by Lenard. Also the narrative of the story gets resolved at the end when Teddy explains to Lenard that he has already got revenge by killing the man because he has taken a photo of him after he had killed the man. However Lenard ignores Teddy and decides he is going to be the John G he is going to kill so the film sticks to the conventions of a thriller with this scene because although the story is resolved it ends on Lenard going to possibly going to Kill Teddy which seems a bit confusing because Teddy was killed at the beginning of the film when actually it was at the end because the film showing the events before the killing at the beginning of the film.

Personally I really liked and enjoyed Memento because it was very confusing lots of misleads and the film was going backwards. This shows that this thriller is very good because it is confusing entertaining. Also it sticks to the conventions of the thriller film very well. I liked how the film was going backwards even though it was a bit confusing at times especially at the beginning. I enjoyed the story of the film and it was very well filmed.

Posted By Oliver Gibbs