Memento (2000)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Story: Jonathan Nolan
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pontoliano
Music: David Julyan
Time: 113 minutes
Bottom-line: One of my best films of the past decade

Christopher Nolan’s second film, after his debut film ‘Following’, is most likely to be his best yet. By directing one of the most confusing films ever, Nolan shows his brilliance in both direction and screenplay.

Memento is the story of Leonard Shelby (Pearce), who is suffering from short-term memory loss, or anterograde amnesia. He is searching for a certain ‘John G’, the man who raped and murdered his wife (Jorja Fox) and hit him in the head, causing his memory loss. To remember his doings, people around him, and certain features of John G he remembers, he has tattoos all over his body. Shelby also uses Polaroid photos for the same purpose. He befriends Natalie (Anne Moss), who helps him in his quest of finding John G. Another mysterious character is Teddy (Pontoliano), who seems to be a friend of Leonard. His true nature is not known till the end. As the story progresses, we see that no character seems to be who they appear to be.

Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie

Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby

Joe Pontoliano as Teddy

                                                                     The most impressive features in Memento are the screenplay and narrative structure. This film makes use of reverse chronology. The story is told in both black-and-white sequences and colour sequences, shown alternately. The linear structure of Memento is broken in two threads: the black and white sequences go in chronological order, while the colour sequences go in reverse. The B&W and colour sequences ‘meet’ by the end of the film, producing a single story. But because of the non-linear structure, the viewer is forced to watch the film a second time to understand the story properly. This non-linear structure has what has impressed many critics and me the most. With the non-linear structure, editing plays a big role. The editing is excellent: the switch from B&W to color and vice-versa and clean. At the point where the B&W and color sequences meet, the shift from B&W to color is so subtle that it requires a keen look to spot it.

In the black and white sequences, Leonard talks to an unknown person over the phone, telling about his life and his past, when he was an insurance investigator. He keeps referring to Sammy Jankis, who was a client with short-term memory loss. The colour sequences begin with Leonard killing John G (which is the chronological ending of the film), and goes to show the events leading to his death. But don’t be fooled, the story is not so simple! Despite a couple of plot holes. However, Nolan provides a ‘satisfying’ ambiguity at the end: both at the end of the film and the chronological end. The final solution is up for grabs. Each viewer can create his/her own analysis of the ending.

If it is so confusing to understand the story with this screenplay, imagine the amount of work Nolan must have done to create this masterpiece. Jonathan Nolan wrote the original story, which was pretty straightforward, but it was Nolan who managed to make it into a great film. Nolan, like Alfred Hitchcock in ‘Psycho’, shows that a good film can be created without reputed actors, musicians, producers etc.
Some fresh actors like Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pontoliano have done well. Pearce’s acting is quite good. His expression of anger and sadness is excellent.

Poster of Ghajini (2005)

The Tamil film ‘Ghajini’, which came 5 years later, is also about a man with short-term memory loss, looking for his wife’s killer. Though Ghajini is a faithful remake of Memento, it has all the usual ‘masala’ ingredients, which make it more favorable to the Indian audience.

But with its unique storyline, non-linear narrative structure, good acting, brilliant direction and a fairly decent score by David Julyan, Memento needs to be watched at least twice or thrice for proper understanding. It is worth watching, no doubt about that. Once you watch this film, you will certainly become a fan of Christopher Nolan.


My Rating: 5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%