Memento (2001) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CV41hoyS8A

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When you’re not sure what to believe anymore, creating your own truth makes your life easier.


PLOT


Inspired by the short story, Memento Mori, Memento is a story told out of order and follows former insurance investigator Leonard Shelby who apparently lost his wife Catherine Jorja Fox) following being attacked by two men. He shot one down, but got attacked from behind by another. The incident caused him to have anterograde amnesia where he’s incapable of making new memories. With the police unable to believe there was another guy, he’s been keeping clues together with notes, tattoos and Polaroids. A colorized arc shown in reverse shows Leonard get the tattoo of a license plate of a possible suspect ‘John G’ and eventually meets a bartender named Natalie who resents him for wearing the clothes and owns the car of her boyfriend Jimmy Grantz (Larry Holden). When she understands his conditions, she uses it get him to drive a guy out of town named Dodd and only after does she run the license plate for him. The car belongs to John Edward Gammel who turns out to be his only known associate Teddy, who had helped him deal with Dodd (Callum Keith Ronnie). When confirming him to be the attacker since he left a Polaroid note to not trust him, he chooses to drive him to an abandoned building to shoot him. There is also a series of black and white scenes where Leonard is speaking to someone on the phone at the hotel he’s staying at, Discount Inn, talking about another man named Sammy Jenkins (Stephen Tobolowsky) had a similar condition before him and accidentally killed his wife (Harriet Samson Harris) when she repeatedly asked for her insulin shot hoping he’d remember. The film’s climax concludes the black and white story transitioning to color where it’s revealed the man on the other side of the phone was Gammel who directs him to the same abandoned building where he will later die. They encounter Jimmy who was a drug dealer expecting money. This leads to Leonard strangling him to death, taking his clothes and taking a Polaroid of his body, but he becomes confused upon hearing him say ‘Sammy’ in his last breath, knowing he only talked about Sammy to people he’s met before. This leads to Gammel admitting they already killed the attacker a year prior and has been using him since. He’d also explain that ‘John G’ is such a common name that Leonard would cyclically forget and keep searching for his attacker and that Sammy’s story is his own memory that he repressed to escape guilt; This means he gave her a fatal insulin overdose on accident after the attack. Hearing this confession does lead to Leonard burning the photos that prove he completed his revenge and chooses to target Gammel. He distracts him by throwing his keys before ordering a tattoo of his license plate and writing the note to not trust him. The film ends with Leonard narrating that despite lying to himself, he believes he’ll retain enough awareness that his actions will have consequences.


THOUGHTS


Christopher Nolan may have debuted with the independent film, Following, but it was adapting his brother Jonathan’s short story that brought him into the mainstream appeal and has been on a roll ever since. Way before Tenet, he makes clear how much he enjoys messing with the narrative and the Oscar nominated editing by Dody Dorn is beneficial because the point is to not only leave you guessing but you keep feeling as disoriented as the lead character is. With one arc going forward and another going way back is just the most creative way to be constantly unpredictable and that is always the best kind of movie going experience. Through Guy Pearce’s amazing performance as Lenny, this movie becomes an everlasting effect because his complex journey is what happens when one person can make memories subjective and reconstruct the truth to maintain a sense of purpose. This is exactly what Lenny chooses to do because his condition makes him most vulnerable and chooses to and endless pursuit of revenge after already achieving it because he doesn’t know what else to do without Catherine who was the one person that made him feel safe. He can’t undo the disruption that came to him, so all he can do is take advantage of it until he either finally remembers or someone stops his cycle of purpose. What is just as bad as him taking advantage of his own predicament is how others became just as manipulative and not even he can prevent it. It’s a minor thing for Mark Boone Junior to be the bluntly dismissive Burt since he does rip him off by moving him to rooms without reminding him constantly, but the likes of Teddy & Natalie take the cake with what they do. As for Joe Pantoliano, he portrayed the former as a guy who cared to a point until he gave up and found worse use of the protagonist’s situation. You respect him for helping the original act of revenge being achieved, but it’s on him to make a personal killer out of Lenny to keep Grantz’ drug money, ultimately becoming big karma in the end, or in this case the beginning. Now when it came to Carrie Ann Moss, she portrays the latter as one who wants to be pragmatic since she’s more about protecting herself from her boyfriend’s connections, but the factor of Lenny does make her more cunning since it takes a while for her to be pitiful towards him. She’s just as foul as Teddy because she doesn’t hesitate with her decisions and it’s hard to know what would come from her actions after the third act of revenge has been completed. In short, Memento is a fantastic thriller for bending the mind in more ways than one. If those are the kind of movies you prefer, see this now.