Memento

Rating: 9/10 (12 September 2005)

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Insomnia, The Dark Knight, Inception), I had seen this film a couple of times before, but apart from the obvious bits and pieces of it I could not remember everything that happens, so I watched again to be sure of my opinion. Basically the film starts with the reverse of Leonard "Lenny" Shelby (Guy Pearce) shooting dead John Edward "Teddy" Gammell (Joe Pantoliano), which would be the end of the film, this is followed by scenes in black and white and in colour, the black and white sequences take place chronologically. Leonard is in a motel room talking to an unnamed and unseen telephone caller, Leonard has anterograde amnesia and cannot form new memories, the result of an attack following the rape and murder of his wife (Jorja Fox), his last permanent memory, besides who he is. He recalls from that night that there were two men, Leonard believes the second attacker's name is John (or possibly James), with a last name starting with G, Leonard conducts his own investigation to find this man, using a system of notes, Polaroid photos and tattoos. As an insurance investigator, Leonard recalls one Sammy Jankis (Stephen Tobolowsky), also diagnosed with the same form of amnesia, Sammy's diabetic wife (Harriet Sansom Harris) was not sure if his condition was genuine, repeating acts to see if he would realise, he did not and as a result of his repeated requests for insulin injections she fell into a coma and died. The colour sequences are shown in reverse chronological order, picking up from a particular recognisable moment, Leonard gets tattoos detailing the licence of John G, using his notes he meets bartender Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), she resents him as he wears and drives the car of her boyfriend Jimmy Grantz (Larry Holden). She does use his condition to her advantage in moments, but understanding his situation she gets Leonard to drive a man named Dodd (Callum Keith Rennie) out of town, and in doing so she agrees to run the licence plate to help his investigation. Leonard meanwhile meets contact Teddy, he helps him with Dodd, Teddy warns him about Natalie, but Leonard left himself a note not to believe Teddy's lies, Natalie provides Leonard the driver's licence of a John Edward Gammell, Teddy's full name, he believes he has found "John G", and he lures Teddy to an abandoned building to kill him, as seen at the beginning. But the final black and white scene reveals that the unseen caller was in fact Teddy, he is an undercover officer and has found "John G", Natalie's boyfriend, Jimmy Grantz, at the same abandoned building Jimmy arrives, Leonard strangles him and takes a photo of his body, as it develops the black and white transitions to colour, thus beginning the colour sequences and meeting in the middle of the story. Leonard swaps clothes with Jimmy, who before dying whispers the name "Sammy", he has only told those he has met about Sammy, he doubts Jimmy is the attacker, but Teddy tells him that he in fact killed the man who killed his wife a year ago, he helped Leonard find him, Teddy tells him "John G" is a common name, he will end up going in circles with his amnesia, he remarks he is a "John G" himself. In the end, after hearing Teddy explain everything, Leonard makes the drastic decision to burn the photographs of Jimmy, and writes down the licence plate of Teddy's car to be tattooed on himself as a "fact", he will then assume that Teddy is the second attacker he is looking for, this leads to all the events concluding with Teddy's death. Also starring Mark Boone Junior as Burt and Russ Fega as Waiter. The performances of Pearce, Pantoliano and Moss are all good, you could argue that the story is nothing spectacular, but it is made that way because of the really clever editing, going backwards and forwards, this also emphasises the serious amnesia of the leading character, it is a film you really have to focus on while watching, and it may be a little complicated as you gather the facts, but it really tests your sense of reality, a most worthwhile thriller. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Editing (losing to Black Hawk Down) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Very good!