Memento , Dennis Riera

Rating: 9/10 (12 May 2005)

Very well crafted film. This first impression it made on me was how complex it was to write and edit without looking cheesy or inconsistent.Christopher Nolan's "Memento" carefully threads a forward moving black and white narration of the reasons the storyline events unfold in the way and order which explains the color portion of the film which is showed in retrospect. (Does that make sense?)(Watch the movie and it will)
This complex film has a very simple premise, Guy Pierce's character "Leonard" is out to avenge his wife's killer. Thats it!.......But wait, this film is shown in a pseudo Jeopardy game format where the answer is given first and the questions are yet to unfold. The scenes are edited in a Terrentino style and Pulp Fictionesse kind of way, whereby you are given vignettes of events which at first don't make sense, until you see the plot unfold after the fact.The fact that Leonard cannot store any new information into his short term memory, gives way to how difficult everyday things are to remember for him, but also how dedicated he is to solve this murder mystery when you can't remember what he did ten minutes ago. This gives this movie an intriguing storyline.
The film starts at the end and slowly devolves into explaining what was shown in the very opening. The fading photograph is a great metaphor for how the rest of the film is going to devolve, and unfold the details after the fact. The only saving grace for Leonard is that he remembers someone (Sammy Jenkins) that he once investigated who had the same mental condition that he has. Sammy Jenkins had provided the road map to the process Leonard needed in order to solve this mystery, as he moved through the storyline. The only saving grace from Leonard is that he learned first hand from Sammy Jenkins that, "You got to have a system to make it work". This is how Leonard is able to track and find his wife's killer through the use of the process of writing everything down and photographing people and places. This process was learned prior to his wife's death and was still in his long term memory. Leonard kept permanent notes tattooed to his body in order to keep from losing them. When questioned about his method of keeping his information Leonard defends his system by saying, by writing down facts I remember, but memory can change a car to a van or the shape of a room. Leonard impresses upon the viewer that his process of orientation is the most efficient and only possible way he can put the pieces together to track down his villain.
The director uses a telephone conversation which moves in a forward direction (against the retro tide of the color portion of the devolving film) to explain the events that are showing in a retrospective play by play sequence of events. This telephone conversation is filled with all recalled information which is the only information that is store in his head. Leonard speaks on the telephone in a very lucid and fluid way, which never gave the impression that he had a memory disability at all. This black and white narration explains the process Leonard uses, as learned from Sammy Jenkins. Jenkins taught Leonard to "learn not by memory, but by instinct". It is Leonards past experiences in his long term memory and his instinct as an investigator is what takes him to his wife's killer.......Great movie, I need to see it again to test the truths of the movie, very much like the movie The Sixth Sense.