Memento is the type of movie that leaves you speechless. Yet because the format of the film is so inventive and original, because the plot is so engaging, you find yourself thinking about it for days after you’ve seen it, trying to put into words what cannot be expressed. It’s a film that you look forward to introducing your friends to, not only because you’ll then have someone to talk to about it, but because you’ll get to see it again. After going to see it this past weekend, I have already begun planning on camping out in front of the video store the night before it’s released to be sure to be one of the first to get a copy.
The sad thing is that Memento, even though it was released over a month ago, is not on in Cape at present. But not to worry—I am not wasting your time in praising a film you will have to wait until the video’s release to see. Carbondale’s Varsity Theater, located on the Strip, is currently showing the film, and Memento is worth every second of that one-hour drive.
Memento follows the life of Leonard, a man who is suffering from short-term memory loss. Ever since his wife was killed by a masked intruder, Leonard has been unable to make new memories. He has to take pictures of people to remember their names, and if a conversation goes on too long, he won’t remember how it started. But he has a mission, to get revenge upon the person who killed his wife, and he will not rest until he has found the killer.
Guy Pearce from LA Confidential portrays Leonard as a truly tortured soul. His lack of understanding of his surroundings almost translates into a lack of self-identity. He will feel angry one moment and then the next forget why. Pearce then must convey an unheard-of range of emotions in each and every scene, and he does so brilliantly. Always he maintains a façade of recognition to make the people he meets feel more comfortable, even though he has no idea who they are.
The film is essentially in one way a character study of Leonard. He is a person who must live by routine if he is to survive. He must trust his own handwriting in the notes he scrawls and believe the photographs he takes, or he’ll never remember the clues he so desperately needs to find his wife’s killer. Leonard must also be constantly wary of the motives of other people he meets, for he knows they could manipulate him without his being able to remember. He’s a man obsessed, a man haunted by the memory of a dead wife who he’d like very much to forget about but who is the one thing he cannot. Guy Pearce goes to great lengths to add incredible dimension to the role.
But the credit cannot go solely to Pearce, for without the in-depth script of writer-director Christopher Nolan there would be nothing to build upon. Nolan could easily have filled the movie with clichés about amnesia, but he did actual research into the nature of memory to explore what a condition such as Lenny’s might actually do to a person. His research definitely pays off, as his creation of Leonard as a character is always believable.
He also creates a labyrinthine mystery for us to solve along with Leonard. Because Leonard will quickly forget any information he uncovers, he must constantly be starting from scratch based on the few facts he has at hand. The film’s most haunting images come in the form of the tattoos Leonard has all over his body, to remind him of key facts relevant to catching the killer. The storyline moves quickly as we watch him track down the killers, and our minds are constantly racing to catch up.
But one of the most inventive things about this film is that we are placed in Leonard’s shoes in a way. The movie begins with Leonard killing someone, and in snippets the movie goes backward to reveal to us slowly why he acted as he did. It is much like the backwards episode Seinfeld did in its last season; we don’t understand why someone acts as they do in one scene until we see what happened before it in the next scene. By going from the end of the story to the beginning, we identify with Leonard’s condition of always having to piece things together from bits and pieces. This method also adds further dimension to the plot when we can remember events that Leonard won’t mere moments later.
These techniques keep us constantly riveted to the screen to try to figure out what has happened before, while at the same time we grow more and more sympathetic to Leonard. There is never a dull moment in this film, and your brain is constantly engaged in figuring things out. And once you believe you’ve got everything lined up neatly, the final scene comes and throws you for a loop that completely changes your point of view.
Memento is truly a must-see, as well as a must-see again. Since it’s such a thought-inducing film, you might be too preoccupied this weekend before finals to check it out now. But I definitely recommend that you then keep an eye out for it to hit the video stores as school starts back up. But beware: you might have to fight me off to get a copy.
