Memento - Review
This review of Memento is spoiler-free!
Having recently just seen the second season premiere of Legion, I'm already locked into the thought process of confusing media. Legion grew out of the idea that its main character is untrustworthy and at times is presenting false information to the audience. Most of the time it was at no fault of his own as there was the Shadow King inside his mind preventing him from seeing certain memories and controlling some of his thoughts. Memento, a story from director Christopher Nolan back in the year 2000 is a story that feels slightly similar. It relies on an unreliable and forgetful protagonist seeking revenge for a crime that happened to him in the past. Another film many consider to be an all-time great from the 21st century, let's talk one of Nolan's early critical darlings.
Leonard is on a mission to track down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The problem? Well, Leonard has a bit of a memory problem. He suffers from an untreatable form of short-term memory loss that essentially cripples his efforts to find out who destroyed his life. Leonard can remember the far past, but nothing that has happened recently (as recently as 15 minutes). As a result, he uses Polaroid photos to keep his memories intact and hopefully show him a means to find the killer. Right away, Memento is a bit confusing by the way it's telling its story. But according to Nolan, it's meant to be this way so that we get that same sense of forgetfulness that Leonard feels throughout the film and for that, I say this story is absolutely stellar. I'll talk more about the storytelling methods that Nolan introduces a bit later, but it's great direction from an earlier Nolan than I've grown up knowing.
Playing our main star of Leonard, Guy Pearce feels like a perfect fit for this role. Often times its challenging to portray illness correctly on screen, but this feels like a good give and take of a man who won't let his condition ruin him, but still struggles with his daily livelihood. Pearce delivers a memorable performance through his inner monologues that result in some of the best scenes in the movie. He's essentially battling himself to find the killer and whether or not he will be satisfied when he doesn't remember it. This movie is without question Pearce's movie and it's hard to find someone who plays anywhere near as much of an impact in this story as he does. The only other person who deserves a call out of any kind is Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie. She understands Leonard's problems but struggles to work with him. We see how her story affects Leonard and how she develops as a character in a unique way. Moss does great work but I'm sure someone else could have performed this role just as well.
From the film's onset, we're introduced to a unique film structure that Nolan implements to tell this story. In the beginning, we're left a bit confused because Leonard feels like he's not a trustworthy due to his memory issues. But, he's trustworthy to us, the person he's not trustworthy for is himself. He can't trust the information he writes down which causes concerns in his daily life. Through Nolan's structure, we're introduced to two timelines. The first being in black and white is shown in forwarding order (earliest event coming first and then the next event happening after). Interspliced with sequences in color that are played backward in time, we're seeing two different timelines taking place and eventually coming together by the film's end. It's a unique mechanic for a story that seeks to confuse and present a puzzle to its audience.
As a whole Memento was an interesting and memorable film in the career of Christopher Nolan. While there are still many more films for me to explore in his past, I can safely say that Memento is one of his more unique. Managing to play with questions or morality and trusting ourselves, it's a great film as a whole. Pearce's Leonard is as memorable a character as any, and as a whole makes this movie that much better. While I won't say it's one of my favorites of the 21st century, this film deserves to be seen by anyone who calls themselves a film fanatic. An excellent film from an excellent director barely entering his prime.
9/10
