Each scene is a moment on its own - we don't know what has come before, because we have not been shown. We only know what will happen, because that is the scene that just finished. It is an excercise in concentration, at first, to link the end of the second sequence you see to the beginning of the preceding scene. A stimulating exercise, and disconcerting. The only reason we don't know the events that led up to whatever we are observing is that we haven't been through it yet - but Leonard doesn't remember, regardless.
Leonard is bent on avenging his wife's rape and murder, the same incident that left him with this condition. His method for remembering things is writing notes on Polaroid shots, which he will not believe if they are not his own handwriting. This brings a whole new dimension to photographic memory. Clues to the murderer get tattooed on his body, when he is certain of them. When he pieces clues together to form a conclusion, he has to write this conclusion down, too, and what action his conclusion should lead to, or else he will not remember it.
We take things for granted - some things we know. This is water, it will be wet when it spills. But that is only because we remember it, we have seen it before, ever since, and learned. This is glass, it will break if I throw it at the wall, but this I know from the past, from life. Things like this Leonard knows, because they were truths he encountered before the 'incident'. But trust - how does one develop trust if they have no recollection of a person at all? And pain - how does one heal, if there is no seeming passage of time, if the last thing you remember is still your wife dying? Closeness, and love - there can be no way of developing these, if there is never recognition, no familiarity.
It is only a small glimpse, harrowing, of what it must be like to live without new memories. Snatches of time - but you can't be sure you have met this person before, without shuffling through your photographs, and you can't know whether or not you actually took that photograph unless it has your handwriting on it. You don't know what you have done 10 minutes before, you don't know if you have met this person before, you don't become familiar with their inflections and smells and mannerisms, because all you remember is now.
Harrowing, powerful, and thought-provoking.
"Does the world disappear when we close our eyes? Does it?"
The film is about memories and the transience of our existence and false beliefs and real beliefs and human relationships and trust and the future and the past and our reasons for living. It is about existentialism. It is both a story told backwards and forward. What would it matter if you could not distinguish one day from another? Another quote from the film:
"What do you care, you won't remember tomorrow anyway."
The beauty of the film is in its rich textures-the switching back between color, black and white and sharp flashbulb bright glare that moves in between shots. Nothing is fade to black. It is also beautiful in the way it shows in painful detail how frightening it would be to wake every day not knowing how you got there and what happened the day before. And the day before that.
The movie feels like a hangover; a drug induced stupor. You can't trust your eyes and you learn that what the characters remember may not be real memories. They are only a version of the truth they are trying to recall. If we question the reality of our memory, if we don't trust the memories of others where is the ground, what are we walking on?
When you watch Memento you have that walking on a glass sidewalk feeling. You know you won't fall to the ground below-hundreds of feet below you. But you don't dare look down. This is one film that will stay with you, or at least your memory of it will.
This movie was based on a short story by the brother of the director. Or at least, it was based on the idea of that short story -- it wasn't actually written at the time Christopher Nolan heard about it. But it was intriguing enough for him to get his brother's permission and start working on the screenplay in fairly short order.
That short story, titled "Memento Mori," is included on the DVD of the movie Memento. Its main character is not named the same as the movie's, but it's essentially the same guy and the story forms a prequel of sorts. Once you've seen the film, you can read the story and find out a few things about the main character that the movie doesn't discuss, and his motivations make much more sense.
Sitting between these two media is a Web site at http://www.otnemem.com which is also included in its entirety on the DVD. It doesn't discuss the movie much, but collects a series of photographs, news clippings, notes and writings directly from the movie and from the events around it. They partially bridge the gap between the short story and the film, and fill in Leonard's motivations even further.
It's an interesting way to use multiple media to tell a complete story, really -- literature, film, and multimedia each telling part of the story's whole. It's also a very effective use of the DVD media to give the interested viewer something besides the usual deleted scenes and behind-the-camera tripe. Of course, you really ought to watch the movie first. The other two would just spoil it all for you.
One of the main philosophies of John Locke is that our consciousness is formed by the memories and experience that we have had. Leonard Shelby cannot remember anything that has happened since the death of his wife, so according to Locke's viewpoint he should have remained the exact same person since then. But over the course of the film it has become obvious that Leonard has changed, he has gone from a mild-mannered insurance investigator to a cold-blooded killer. And even though Leonard cannot remember all the killings he has done, they still seem to have affected him in some way. The fact that he is so willing to use his condition to set himself up to kill Teddy says something about how his psyche has changed since the attack on his wife. His lust for revenge and all of the murders he has committed has turned Leonard into a remorseless machine.
According to Locke, Leonard is still guilty of committing those crimes because, although he cannot consciously remember them, they have still changed him as a person. He is no longer the innocent victim, but instead an executioner. They have also changed how the audience percieves him. Initially Leonard can be seen as a sympathetic character, a man trying to overcome his condition and gain vengeance for his murdered wife. After the film we realize that the shooting of Teddy was all a setup and that there is now no stopping Leonard.
Me*men"to (?), n.; pl. Mementos (#). [L., remember, be mindful, imper. of meminisse to remember. See Mention.]
A hint, suggestion, token, or memorial, to awaken memory; that which reminds or recalls to memory; a souvenir.
Seasonable mementos may be useful. Bacon.
© Webster 1913.
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