''Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.''A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes an
...( read more)d tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.Guy Pearce: Leonard
Memento is deeply psychological, as soon as it starts you can see in between the lines, the stylish layout and the Adult thriller Hitchcock-esque execution, that this is birthed from the mind of Nolan.
That being said Memento not only is derived from acclaimed Director Christopher Nolan but also Jonathan Nolan who wrote the short story Memento Mori.
Christopher does the Screenplay which to my opinion holds no faults, it's virtually flawless.Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie, and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy Gammell again show as they did in The Matrix that they have a knack for clamping down and getting roles in deep, challenging, twisty, intellectual pieces. Which also pretty much describes Memento to a small degree. They do a good job in showing no one can be trusted within the film and everyone raises more questions rather than answers.
''I always thought the joy of reading a book is not knowing what happens next.''
Guy Pearce the main focus and Leonard character of Memento, genuinely comes across as being a mysterious faceted three dimensional entity thanks to the mind bending script. Guy's narration really gives the film a gritty Film-Noir detective feel which really lifts Memento to dizzying heights.
We see his short term memory effortless put forth to us, we see his tattoos and his troubles state of mind. In this sense Nolan succeeds in using his tool Guy Pierce to as near success as heaven doth allow.
''I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do I believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I'm no different.''
So what is the plot that Memento offers us?
It consists of an emotional shock that results in unhinged revenge, Leonard Shelby is now piecing back the bits of remembered past?
Or is he?
Is he alive? If we agree that a person doesn't exist as an entity without memory, existing in a uncanny state of limbo, and that this dead Leonard is watching his life flash by. It's a genius question which for all us deep thinkers allows for us to theorize on our own conclusions.As all the pieces start to come together in this jigsaw, at the climax yet in the narrative's ascending beginning, Leonard is denied all the usual action of a hero's benefits and indeed rewards reaped: Increased self-knowledge, knowledge of the world and the plot of occurrences.
He is given the answers at the start yet only remembers the questions. Leonard at the end is a more coherent character than at the beginning.Is this due to the fact we've given a mass of information by then and think we know him and his situation better? Or is he, as his narrative progresses, getting vaguer, moving towards inertia, the catatonia that finally swamped his altar-ego Sammy Jankis.
Our problem is that the film comprises not one plot, but four, all fragmented, full of gaping black holes, all mediated by this character who knows nothing. One is Leonard's narrative as he sees it, as he tries to avenge his wife's murder. The second is told in monochrome flashback (or whatever this is called in a film that runs backward), mostly told in mysterious phone calls, and seem to flesh out the gaps missing in the first plot, but actually creates more. The third is the 'real' plot that may have something to do with cops, snitches, femmes fatales, or may be hallucinated, misremembered by Leonard, or simply planted there as cover for another plot, or may not even exist at all. The fourth is the story of Sammy, who suffered the same 'condition' as Leonard.
All four unique strains are obviously connected with each other to create a discordant vision, but each undermines the other.
In a relative sense, hell is here, and Leonard is in hell. We can only take the opening sequence, where Leonard stands holding a fading photograph over a dead man's bloody body as the only reliable image, and in this image, another, the snapshot, is slipping away, untouchable, like Leonard's memory, like the film, like Memento. It's ending is in a sense a rewinding of sorts.''My wife deserves revenge, whether I know about it or not.''
Memento
93%
liked it
Memento
Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano, Carrie-Anne Moss, Mark Boone Junior, Stephen Tobolowsky
A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
Id: 10898121
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Recent Reviews
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December 25, 2009''Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.''
A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes an
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December 13, 2009Brilliant in its strategic use of information by building the story in secret right under your nose, in the way its unreliable narrator keeps you guessing, in the way each scene is necessary yet ambiguous and adds new dimension to the story. The film takes you on quite a trip. Fr...( read more)
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October 18, 2009This is the one film you should not miss the beginning of, because it's the ending you are seeing. From that scene on the story goes backwards in small bits (in color) and forward (in black and white) in other small bits at the same time, to meet at the climax towards the end. So...( read more)
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September 7, 2009Memento is a great film, original and entertaining. It is however, in my opinion, a little over rated. Much like a couple of other great films - The Usual Suspects and The Prestige (Nolan's later film), it's great the first time round but once you've seen it once, its never quite...( read more)
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June 22, 2009I seem to be the dissentng opinion on this film. While it was interesting, I found the back-to-front storytelling more irritating than innovative.
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January 1, 2010I just found out that Memento is still enjoyable after more than a couple of rewatches, which certainly gives the film a positive aspect because you really could go over it again and again.
Christopher Nolan very carefully avoided the goofs, which is extremely hard do by in a p...( read more) -
December 31, 2009Christopher Nolan has never really let me down, and I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of his work. This is the film that really put him on the map of filmmakers to keep an eye on. This brilliant film, told simultaneously in reverse and forward, has to be seen to be believed....( read more)
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December 28, 2009An dark, bleak yet exciting twist on the thriller genre. Some people think this movie is hard to understand at first, so they don't like it. Just pay attention and you'll be amazed. This movie is based around an entirely new kind of storytelling.
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December 27, 2009Dont have much of a review, which is actually because i could talk all day about this film. This is by far, my favorite film of all time.
