Christopher Nolan’s psychological crime mystery starring Guy Pearce is a brilliant depiction of anterograde amnesia, which draws the audience into suffering together this disjointed life of main character Leonard Shelby as he seeks to avenge the rape and murder of his wife.
Although reorganised to start at the end, Memento appears to follow the classic structure of story-telling to the extent that there is our hero whose normal world has been disrupted and he is attempting to right the wrong. However, this film does possess many of the unconventional qualities of art house films, such as an ambiguous ending; restricted yet impacting cinamatography; only one main character; and indirect unlinear chronology, all of which suggests a blend of the two styles. Personally, it seems to indicate an art house style film that has a solid foundational story.
Regardless of style and structure, Memento exquisitely represents a psychological affliction, creating for the viewer a similar experience that a sufferer of short-term memory loss may have to live with - confusion; disorientation; distress; and maybe attempts to find some way of holding on to present day reality, such as note-taking and creating mementos.
One comment that really stood out to me was when Leonard was talking to Teddy about the unreliability of memory, and the fact the memeory can make a green car red (or a red car green - I can’t remember!). It is only the facts that are infalible. The wonderful twist to this at the conclusion was that the whole film displayed how unreliable facts are without memory. Not only this, but underneath the initial story lies the suggestion that regardless of the physical or psychological state of a person, one always has a choice, and a responsibility for that choice.
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