The way we are and the way we were
- Review By:
- tpb
- Date:
- January 29, 2009
- Movie:
- Memento
- Director:
- Christopher Nolan
- Released:
- 2000
- Good Guy:
- Leonard
- Played By:
- Guy Pierce
- Bad Guy:
- John G
- Played By:
- Unknown
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Older teens
Some movies that stick with you long after the ending credits keep you interested as you work through plot details and subtleties after the fact (Thirteen Conversations about One Thing, 2002). Others gnaw at you like a nightmare (the original, 1988, Dutch version of "The Vanishing"). "Memento" does a little of both. It presents disability as debilitating super-power. It offers twisted, backward story-telling with a frightening reminder of one's own vulnerable existence. It lays out the facts of the case, the focused and intense detective, the secondary characters, the pursuit, the snare, and the victory. Then spills it all out onto the final scenes as useless and unreliable, inaccurate and unreal, confusing and horrific.
Leonard (Guy Pierce) has a head injury and has no short-term memory. At first it seems he can't remember events that took place the day before. As it happens, he can't remember events of 10 or 15 minutes ago. What he does seem to remember are the details of his life prior to his head injury. But, this is unreliable as well because, by nature, we all embellish. We access memories and events and turn them over in remembrance then put them back in slightly different shape than they were when we took them out. So what Leonard remembers and what really happened - or is happening - is anybody's guess.
Leonard uses a system of notes, polaroids, and tattooes to give him continuity and trust in the 'facts'. The problem is that the facts are gathered from untruths and speculation. He believes these to be true, but, by the end, it's possible that none of it is. To compound it all, he is surrounded by creeps who take advantage of his 'condition'. There is Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) who continually "messes with" him and laughs about it; Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) who hangs around with drug dealers and who fabricates history; and the motel desk clerk (Mark Boone Junior) who rents Leonard more than one room, because Leonard can't recall that he has already has one. Yikes... If this doesn't get you thinking about how close to the edge we are all living, and how fragile it all is, lucky you.
