'Memento' review

“We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are.”

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) says this line in the 2000 film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. In the film, a man who suffers from anterograde amnesia goes on a mission to find the man that raped and killed his wife. The only things that he remembers, is his life before the accident and his wife. The idea for Memento came from Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonathan, who wrote a short story called “Memento Mori” about a man who has short term memory and uses polaroids and tattoos to help him figure out who raped and killed his wife, which is much like the film.

When watching the film for the first time, it is obviously very confusing. There are two different things going on: the scenes that are in black and white are in chronological order (but is in the past) and the scenes that are in color are in reverse order (but is in the present). After watching Memento, I read an article “Everything You Wanted to Know About ‘Memento’” by a film critic, Andy Klein, who dissected everything in the film and made it so much easier to understand. He basically created a way to watch the film in its right order. He explained that when watching the movie, to watch the black and white scenes in  chronological order, but to list every scene 1 through 21. However, there is a “special” scene at the end of the film, where it starts off in black and white, but transitions into color; this specific scene would be 22/A. Then, the color scenes would have to be watched in reverse order, or backwards, and those scenes would be B through V. In all, the complete order of how the film would be viewed, in a chronological order, would be:
1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22/A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V.

One of the main themes for the film is memory. The entire film consists of the idea of whether or not Leonard, the main character, is searching for the right man who killed his wife or not. For starters, Leonard is an unreliable narrator because of his short term memory, the audience is unable to determine if his memories and his flashbacks are real or if they are fabricated. What is clever about this film is that the director, Christopher Nolan, has a man who is damaged and his short term memory is his weakness. Leonard is easily deceived by people who learn of his “condition” and they use it to their advantage, like Natalie, who has him kill her boyfriend’s drug dealer boss. Natalie and her manipulative ways definitely makes her the film’s femme fatale because she seduces Leonard and makes him trust her, only for her to use him in the end and have him kill someone for her. There are other film noir characteristics that fit with other characters, like Teddy, who resembles a rogue cop. The audience does not find out that Teddy is a cop and is the one who Leonard has been giving information to one the phone, until towards the end of the film. Teddy is taking advantage of Leonard as well, he helped him find the guy who got away from the assault, but because Leonard does not remember, he uses him to kill other men and collects money from them. This leaves Leonard… who is he? I came to the conclusion that Leonard is a homme fatale, because he is an attractive man, who is going through a rough time in his life and he can’t make any sense of what is really going on, but he is very determined and sticks to his mission.

The use of voice-over is an important device in the film as well because there are also two different types of it. For the black and white scenes, Leonard’s voice-over is more like him being interviewed, which in many cases, he already is because of the phone call that he has. The audience and Leonard are unaware, until the end of the film, of who is on the other line. The voice-over for the color scenes are more investigative, because he is trying to figure things out in his mind, as they are happening. His voice-over is his inner thoughts. The color scenes are probably my favorite ones, because the audience is just as clueless as Leonard is and we are both trying to figure out what is happening and we both get frustrated when he forgets. What Leonard knows, is what the viewers know.

The ending of the film might come as a shock for many people, but there are little clues throughout the film. One of the major clues is the “Remember Sammy Jankis” tattoo on his hand. This was most likely a way for Leonard to remember who he really is, the person that reminds him most of himself. He created Sammy to repress his guilt over accidentally killing his wife. Not only is Leonard being used by people in the film, but he, himself, is using a fictional person to carry the weight of his issue.

When Leonard remarks, “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are” I believe that this means that he needs to be reminded of who he is, because he doesn’t really know himself. When Teddy asks him if he knows who he (Leonard) is, he goes on to recite real facts, but Teddy wants him to know “what he has become” which is something that Leonard will not know, and probably will never know. He is on a never-ending tunnel that leads him to kill men with the name John G. and his mission to avenge his wife’s death, becomes meaningless.

One of the last lines that Leonard says at the end of the film is, “Do I lie to myself to make myself happy?” It is one of my favorite quotes because it is something that I think everyone can relate to. The line itself is pitiful and makes the viewer feel somewhat bad for Leonard, but then you remember all the things he’s done, and you don’t feel so bad anymore. He can’t help that he has a condition and this bothers him. So when he finally learns the truth, he chooses to ignore it, because at this point in his life, he is not living his life for himself but for his dead wife. His only goal is to repeatedly get vengeance. This connects with everyone else in the world, because with little things such as makeup and cosmetics, help women feel confident and beautiful. We make up excuses and lies to help us with daily life situations. Is it a good thing? No. Though we choose to do it anyway.