Memento Film Review

'Memento' (Nolan, 2000)

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan, born 30^th July 1970 is a British-American film writer, director and producer. He is the second of three children and is noted for working on films with his younger brother Jonathan Nolan – for example, ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008). His genre of film is always thriller, often a psychological thriller (The Prestige, 2006), usually accompanied by a non-linear storyline. Films written, directed or produced by Nolan include: ‘Following’ (1998), ‘Memento’ (2000), ‘The Prestige’ (2006) & ‘Inception’ (2010). He is also known for his Batman series, having written and directed two films based on the original Batman series (Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008)). He is currently working on the third and final film to the trilogy (The Dark Knight Rises), and is said to be thinking about doing a new Superman film.

Memento is a film about a man called Leonard Shelby, who after an attack on his wife in their home was hit over the head, causing brain damage which stopped his ability to make new memories. Shelby has only one goal throughout the entire film, and that is to find and kill a man called ‘John G’ who he believes killed his wife. However, as the film continues, it becomes clear that his attempts to remember what he has and hasn’t done are proving useless as the people around him are seen manipulating him. A ‘friend’ of his, Teddy/John Gammell, who is seen getting shot and killed in one of the first scenes of the film, is helping him with his mission to find the man who apparently attacked and killed his wife. Eventually, you learn that his wife survived the attack, and the story of a con artist known as Sammy Jankis turns out to be about his self. Sammy Jankis was a con artist who Shelby encountered whilst working for an insurance company. He was faking having short term memory loss, and claimed to only have memory of the last two minutes. The story is that to see if Sammy was faking his condition, his wife tricked him into making her overdose on insulin. The film eventually ends with the actual beginning to the film, the scene just before the film starts. Leonard tracks down a man called Jimmy G and strangles him in an old abandoned house. Teddy, who has turns up there to meet up with Jimmy, discovers what has happened and it is revealed that he has been manipulating Leonard. It turns out that Teddy and Leonard had already tracked down and killed the real John G more than a year before. Leonard then burns the photo he took of Jimmy, and forgets what happen, only to continue his search for John G indefinitely.

The film uses two separate story structures through the use of black and white, and colour. The colour scenes are non-linear, and are going backwards, whereas the black and white scenes of Leonard in the hotel room aren’t. The opening sequence shows this when a Polaroid photo Leonard took of Teddy’s dead body is seen un-developing on the colour filter. The genre of the film is very clearly introduced in the opening scene as being a psychological thriller. The soundtrack is quite eerie, which contrasts well with the murder scene that is being played backwards. The scene makes you ask questions. Why has he murdered this man? Why is he taking a photo? Why is this scene going backwards, it’s driving me crazy?! All questions that eventually get answered at the end of the film of course, but you’re left wondering throughout the entire film. Nolan himself has said that he wanted to put the audience in the shoes of the protagonist, Leonard Shelby. He doesn’t know who to trust, what to do or even what he’s already done. All he can do it give his self messages and little details in the hope of remembering. Mementos…

A key scene in this film is of course the opening sequence, where we see Teddy get is murdered by Leonard. However, another key scene, perhaps one of the most important in the entire film is the scene in which Sammy Jankis gives his wife the overdose of insulin. This scene is repeated throughout the film, usually whenever you see the tattoo entitled ‘remember Sammy Jankis’. The events of the scene change as the film goes on, and eventually at the end you see that it is in fact Leonard and not Sammy who gives his own wife an overdose of insulin. This scene is key with delivering the main point of the film, the confusion between what is real, and what’s not. What’s true, and what’s a lie. It gets to the point in the film when anything is possible, anyone and maybe even everyone could be the antagonist. You just don’t know.

Nolan has delivered some incredible films in his career of 21 years. The Prestige probably being number one on my list. However, it is quickly followed by this intense psychological thriller, which was originally based on a short story his younger brother Jonathan wrote called ‘Memento Moi’. Memento is a film you can watch again and again, and still be baffled by the intense narrative and non-linear storyline. I would easily recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a powerful thriller. I can only think of one reason that you should not like this film, and that is because you don’t have the intelligence to understand it.

James Doughty.