Memory Vs. Imagination

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2014)

It's Interstellar week so my quest to go back and review all of Christopher Nolan's previous films continues.
Christopher Nolan has a neat way of presenting high concept ideas that all of us have thought about but not quite understood, and bringing them to the big screen in a highly entertaining way. Memento is quite possibly Nolan's most thought provoking film. It tells the story of a man who was injured during the murder of his wife and has short term memory loss. Only of course the film isn't told chronologically. It is told in two ways. The black and white scenes move forward but are of his past. While the color scenes are more present but are told backwards. When they meet we have the end. I have seen many films that take concepts like this and fail to truly entertain and are more artsy than audiences would like. Nolan mixed brain power with a unbelievably entertaining thriller.
Leonard's main goal is to find and kill his wife's killer, only with short term memory loss he has trouble remembering clues or even if he has already killed the man. He has tattoos to remind himself of his daily goals and who or who not to trust. While all this is going on, flashbacks tell the story of Sammy Jankis who suffered from the same disease as Leonard and supposedly kills his wife unwillingly because of it. The more and more the story progresses we begin to question everything we think we know about the character(s). As the color scenes are told subjectively we begin to find out more and more objective things once the scenes move backwards more. Where as we are told Leonards black and white scenes through an objective lens from a distance.
Nolan basically invents a new way of telling a story with this film and perfects it beautifully. It's really a story of memory versus imagination and how as we lose our memory we begin to paint our past with imagination and how we want to remember things. So Leonard may or may not fill in the gaps of his memory with what he wants to believe happened or not.
Guy Pearce gives an Oscar worthy performance in what should have been an all around award winning movie. From the writing to the editing to the directing to the haunting score, this film is a masterpiece and a true work of art that we just don't get often in film. Nolan combines art house directing with the utmost entertaining and engaging way to tell a story. I wont begin to try to explain the ending or go into true spoilers because this is a film you want to watch without knowing much and then go back and watch it right after. It's truly one of the most brilliant stories ever written and greatest films of all time.
+Inventive storytelling by the Nolan's
+Objective vs Subjective
+Memory vs Imagination
+Beginning is the end is the middle
+High concept yet highly entertaining
10/10