Fascinating and Frightening

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2019)

Memento certainly charts new cinematic territory with its odd yet compelling structure of non-chronological flashbacks of a man who has lost his ability to form short-term memories. They are not his flashbacks, for he is the protagonist of all of them. But the structure allows the viewer to imagine what it would be like to be him, dealing with a totally fragmented experience caused by brain damage. The result is fast-paced, compelling and more than a bit disturbing. I was glued to the screen for the length of the film, so obviously it was convincing enough in the moment to hold my attention, despite the kaleidoscopic structure.
I do have a post-viewing question, which fortunately did not pop up while I was watching, else it might have disrupted the flow: How can the protagonist remember that he has lost the ability to form short-term memories? When he is compared to Sammy, there is a world of difference. Sammy does not know that he cannot form the memories. Lennie, in contrast, is completely fixated on this single idea, which drives his action and motivates everything else that he does.
Despite that single quibble, the film is quite thought-provoking and may serve as a cautionary tale, now that brain tech is being developed by DARPA to control soldiersÂ´ minds, making them manipulable in precisely the way the lamentable protagonist of Memento has become. This work is both fascinating and frightening.