Memento (2001, U.S. release)

Truly Memorable Movie

The first scene goes slowly in reverse. The next scene is in black-and-white, and is awfully short. The next scene is in color, and then the scenes begin to alternate from black-and-white to color, and the color sequences are being shown in backward order. Are you watching the results of the work of a drunk editor? No, you've just begun to watch Memento, an incredible, taut thriller by director Christopher Nolan.

To merely explain the plot of the movie wouldn't do the experience of watching it any justice at all, but I do have to try. Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) tells everyone he meets that he has "a condition." He can no longer form nor retain any short-term memories. This happened after an unfortunate event: his wife was raped and murdered, and some time during that crime Leonard was hit hard, inducing his current condition. As he explains to a character early in the film, he can't remember things that just happened. If he's in the midst of a long conversation, he might not remember how he started it. To aid himself in his life, he writes and leaves little notes for himself, reminding him of tasks he needed to take care of. With the use of a polaroid, he snapshots important faces and places, and then writes relevant notes about them on the photos. He has also tattooed the most important facts and suggested courses of actions all over his body. He does remember everything that happened before the accident, including the fact that his wife has been killed and that the killer is on the loose. Using his notes, his photos, his tattoos, his clues to himself, i.e. everything in his power, he is determined to track the killer down himself and get vengeance for his wife.

As I said, that doesn't begin to describe what it is like to watch it, and this is because of the wildly unique nature of the narrative. There are two storylines to follow. One of the storylines is in black-and-white, and it goes forward in time. The other, more substantial one is in color, but its scenes are shown in reverse sequence. The two storylines alternate scene-by-scene, so what you effectively end up with is something like this: two-minutes of b&w scene; cut to five-minute color sequence; cut to one minute of b&w scene which continues where the last one left off; cut to three-minute color sequence which ends where the last one began. It sounds confusing, but it's easy to get the hang of very quickly, thanks to sharp work in the writing and directing. The color segments are broken up according to each brief continuation of Leonard's memory and each one always ends at the point where his memory resets. For instance, one color segment begins with him finding himself sitting on a toilet wondering what he's doing with a bottle in his hand. In the following color segment, it ends with him grabbing a bottle and waiting in the bathroom, preparing to ambush an assailant. Right when his memory resets and he's wondering what he's doing with the bottle, the scene cuts.

The technique is extremely effective for the story it is trying to tell. Never before have I seen a thriller where more details about the true motives of characters are revealed in each event preceding the last. As each color segment reveals more and more of what happened in the past, you learn the true nature of the two characters who at first seem to helping Leonard and then later appear to be manipulating him, taking advantage of his condition. Who is his real friend? Is it Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), a shifty, wisecracking fellow on whose Polaroid is a note reminding Leonard not to "believe his lies"? Or is it Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), a woman who seems to be in distress and in need of Leonard's help? Other than by using the notes he's scribbled on his Polaroids and little scraps of paper, Leonard doesn't know what to make of them each time he meets them after his memory resets. But we, the audience, start to know better with each passing segment.

Meanwhile, the b&w segments help give the audience some more background, as they mostly show Leonard describing his condition to someone over the phone. Leonard recalls a case when he worked as an insurance claims investigator before the accident. It involved a man named Sammy, who had an accident and had the same memory-retention problem that Leonard has now. At first, we don't know where in the timeline to place the b&w segments, but then it becomes obvious and it draws us in even more when we realize where the two storylines are headed.

The movie is extremely engaging and very fun to watch. Nolan nails the storytelling down and makes it work. The audience doesn't get lost in traveling down the two paths. Towards the end, though, the details start coming in fast and it may end up quite confusing. That may be the film's only weakness, that it may become confusing and that the audience will become unsure of what were actual events and true stories. So, just as a warning ahead of time, be sure to pay attention.

Personally, the potential confusion at the end didn't bother me. After all, it goes right along with the theme of the movie. Leonard sums it up near the beginning of the movie: memory is unreliable, and it can make you believe you have a "record" of something, but it isn't really trustworthy, and that nothing is as trustworthy as recorded facts. And that maybe there are things we prefer to remember, and other things we prefer to remember differently. Anyway, the movie is a trip. I recommend seeing it, and I recommend seeing it with friends, because after you leave the theater, you and your friends will be asking each other questions. I love a movie that stays in your thoughts long after you've seen it, and, ironically, Memento more than qualifies as such a movie.

Rating: 10/10

©Jeffrey Chen, Mar. 18, 2001

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