Memento is a 2000 psychological thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan based on a 1999 short story called Memento Mori by his brother Jonathan Nolan that was published in the March 2001 edition of Esquire Magazine. The film stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne-Moss, and Joe Pantoliano.
In Memento, actor Guy Pearce plays an insurance investigator named Leonard Shelby who is very good at spotting fake claims. He only trusts the facts because memories are unreliable and can change, from person to person, like the color of a room. A 58 year old man named Sammy Jankis comes into his office one day to file a claim after a car accident leaves him unable to make new memories. Doctors test Sammy but can’t find anything wrong; and as a result, Leonard denies Sammy’s claim, gets a big bonus and a promotion while Sammy, on the other hand, loses everything. In a twist of fate, Leonard suffers a head injury that leaves him unable to make new memories. Unlike Sammy, though, Leonard has a system and organizes his life around notes and routine. He also has friends like Natalie, a waitress whose boyfriend is double-crossed and killed in a drug deal. Leonard also has his friend Teddy, an undercover cop who doesn’t trust Natalie and wants him to leave town. It’s confusing, Natalie telling him 1 thing and Teddy telling him something else. But Leonard manages to keep it all together by writing and tattooing notes all over his body except for 1 empty space over his heart, for John G., the man who stole his memories and murdered his wife.
Memento’s plot is structured off of Leonard Shelby’s inability to remember anything for more than 5 minutes. The film plays out in reverse in which scenes are divided and mixed up so that they begin with an act (or fact) and end by playing out everything that happens before the fact (everything that he forgets) in order to show how facts change depending on purpose and intent.
Emotions can shape facts. Mrs. Jankis sees Sammy’s condition as real because she is his wife and loves him; Leonard has no emotional attachment to Sammy and sees him as a potential faker. Leonard’s bedside manner is callous when he tells her that he sees no reason for Sammy not to be able to make memories. Even though Mrs. Jankis and Leonard are looking at the same person in Sammy Jankis, their interpretation of this fact changes within the context of their emotions. This proves Teddy’s existential argument that a fact--in and of itself--is as unreliable as memory unless you know how and why the fact exists, its intent, and its purpose. Emotions also help us to remember things. We may forget details but impressions like fear, anger, pain, and pleasure stay with us. Leonard’s desire to find his wife’s killer changes the meaning--or context--of why Natalie is helping him. He believes that she is helping him out of pity but she is really helping him to knock off Teddy who double-crosses her boyfriend Jimmy in the drug deal. Compare this with Sammy Jankis and how he keeps picking up the same electrified objects over and over in spite of the pain. The unreliability of facts is also illustrated when Leonard kills the wrong man and Teddy tells him that the man he killed was the right man to him and to enjoy it while he still remembers.
Leonard’s polaroids are a way of him preserving unfelt experiences, like someone attending a sporting event or a concert and recording it on a phone instead of experiencing it in the moment. For example, when Natalie asks Leonard why he seeks a revenge that he won’t remember, Leonard tells her that he’ll just take a picture or get a tattoo.
Memento is still my favorite Christopher Nolan film. Everything about it is perfect from the cast featuring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. The script which I read before writing this review is also amazing as well as the short story it’s based on by Jonathan Nolan. What a tag-team! If there was ever a case for gender bias in Hollywood, this film is the best example. Despite the excellent editing Dody Dorn did on this film, she only received a nomination. By the way, she also edited James Cameron’s T2: Judgement Day. The film has also been recognized by the scientific community for its realistic depiction of short term memory loss. If you haven’t seen Memento, you should to know why Nolan’s Batman Trilogy set the standard it did.
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