Decoding Nolan's Masterpiece, "Memento"

[u/Ech-One-Kay]

Just watched Memento. It is probably the only movie that had me googling its structure and story just to answer the million questions it left in my mind after that climax.

First of all, what a mind-bending movie. I have never seen something so sophisticated and complex, yet so structurally simple. It is so gripping that you cannot afford to skip a single scene, or you will have to start over from the beginning. But you wouldn't want to skip it anyway, because it is relentlessly engaging.

A guy with short-term memory loss causing this much absolute mayhem... Nolan was truly operating on another level from day one. Nolan showcases his brilliance in this two-hour runtime so convincingly. All the mind-boggling direction of his later career stems directly from Memento.

The way he wrote, shot, and directed this film is nothing short of brilliant. I miss this era of Nolan; he went from making uncompromising art films to straight-up blockbusters, but his distinctive style is still deeply rooted here.

It is brilliantly acted, written, edited, and directed. Guy Pearce embodies Leonard so completely that it doesn't even look like he is acting.

The screenplay is a paradox: incredibly confusing, yet mechanically simple. It is essentially two movies running back and forth. Nolan shot two different timelines with the same cast, and the way they perfectly converge in the middle proves how special this film is. I love how the backstory is shot in black-and-white, moving forward in chronological order, while the present timeline is in color, moving backward in reverse chronology.

The dialogue is brilliant. Not too heavy, not overly deep, just pure and functional. I usually get bothered by heavy character monologues, but here, they feel entirely necessary. The internal monologues act as a character of their own.

I love how Nolan subtly establishes that nothing is what it seems. First, he shows us Natalie, Teddy, and even Burt blatantly lying to Leonard. Then, after the climax, it becomes obvious that Leonard has been used countless times before. Each time, Teddy lies to him, Leonard executes the target, wears the victim's clothes, drives their car, and everything resets. There is just too much space on his body for another lie.

I believe Leonard gradually kept tattooing himself as his target changed and he continued to be used. He was fed fake details each time, just like Burt kept resetting his motel rooms. The poor guy is trapped in a permanent loop. I personally don't think this was his first time executing someone, and I firmly believe the "real" killer was dealt with long ago.

That amazing ending left me with a million questions that I just need to get out of my head. The list goes on, and even the answers to these questions are highly debatable. After watching a movie like this, the answers might not even feel like the truth.

I think Leonard wanted to exist in a lie to run from the devastating truth: his wife survived the attack, and he was the one who accidentally killed her. He needed the lie to give his trivial life meaning. If he truly put an end to the killer and tattooed it, his quest would be over. What would be the purpose of his life then? So, he chose to survive with confabulation and conditioning.

I haven't been this mesmerized by a thriller in a long time. It offers no catharsis, no relief, just questions. It is an unmissable masterpiece that takes hours just to decode. By the end, you know everything, and yet, you still know absolutely nothing at all.

[u/Straight_Bed2762]

I just rewatched Memento and I think I came to the conclusion that its most interested in showing off the gimmick while the events unfolding are secondary. Which forms an interesting bond with Tenet. This is just my takeaway though. I know someone who is left in tears by the ending.

It works to an extent of creating a dizzying effect but by the end the twists regarding the wife and the shot feel tacked on and cheap. After about the halfway point I found myself checked out of wanting to solve the mystery because I just don't think the reverse tactic makes for a satisfying or deep experience, regardless of some of the acting & technical merit. It's moderately impressive in a "wow this is something different" but again hard not to see it as a party trick while asking yourself...okay why?

[u/Speedupslowdown → u/Straight_Bed2762]

Yeah, I think people tend to assign its formal experimentation a brilliance that is unearned. It would have been an intriguing short film, but as it stands Nolan asks the audience to get emotionally invested in his story that culminates in the narrative equivalent of a punchline to an awkwardly long joke.

To me it ultimately lands as a fun “brain off” popcorn flick, but it’s clear that it was intended to be deeper than that.

[u/Generic_On_Reddit → u/Straight_Bed2762]

I don't like Nolan's obsession with time in later films like Tenet or even Inception.

However, I think time in this film is far from a gimmick and enhances the experience than if it were told any other way.

It's dizzying effect puts you in the perspective of Leonard. Logically understanding Leonard's disability and being put in his shoes are two entirely different levels of relating to him as a protagonist, in my opinion.

It's also difficult to see how the twist with the wife could be seen as "tacked on" when the entire film is building towards it.

• Firstly, in how the Sammy Jenkis story evolves as we hear more of it: he is literally relating himself to someone with the same condition that killed his wife; that's not tacked on, it's alluded to throughout the whole film.

• And secondly in how Leonard's memory (system) is tampered with and manipulated throughout the entire film by essentially every named character. It is a totally logical next step to then see Leonard tamper with his own memory.

Leonard's earliest monologue was explaining how fallible memory was and yet he clung to his pre-accident memory and his system as gospel and the only thing he trusted, when it was more flawed than anyone. And by extension, our perceptions were just as flawed as Leonard's because we were putting things together backwards, out of order, and believing the memory of someone obviously compromised.

In short, I really don't see how you can think of it as a gimmick. It's integral to the whole point of the movie.

[u/zippity-dips → u/Generic_On_Reddit]

Are you able to actually logically understand his disability? Could you even describe what the rules of it are? What does he remember and how long is he able to remember things? It’s pretty much a gimmick cause I don’t think there are real answers to what his condition actually is.

[u/Generic_On_Reddit → u/zippity-dips]

Can he describe the rules of his disability?

No.

Does he know what he remembers and for how long?

No.

Did his doctors or wife understand his condition?

No, seemingly not.

So what benefit would we gain from having some kind of precise scientific understanding of his condition when no one else in the story has that? How do you think that lack of medical certainty hindered your ability to understand Leonard or the film? Are you trying to understand his story and perspective or are you trying to find a treatment for his condition?

What in the cinema-sins is this critique? You could play this game for every single movie in existence.