Blog Assignment #8

Memento has become one of the most popular films of the past twenty years. Countless films and other mass media have mimicked and imitated its style. This enduring legacy and popularity stems largely from its unique narrative sequence. Presented in two color structures — black and white and color — the film goes back and forth between the past and the present in both chronological and reverse chronological order.

Memento is the story of Leonard who suffers from a type of short term memory loss known as anterograde amnesia. His wife has been raped and murdered and he is on a quest to find the perpetrator he believes got away. While Leonard was present during the attack, he was injured and this trauma resulted in his amnesia. Due to his condition, he must constantly write himself notes — even going so far as to tattoo the notes onto himself — in order to remember anything and track down his wife’s murderer.

The movie’s sequence is not entirely chronological. The episodes from the past (before the start of the film), are shown in color, while the episodes from the present are shown in black and white. These scenes alternate until they meet during the events from the beginning of the film. This unorthodox narration allows the viewer to step inside the inner workings of Leonard’s mind. The viewer, too, has amnesia and must piece together the snapshots of events just as the character must.

It is this presentation of the story that I believe is the key to the film’s success. If told in the “normal” way that most stories are (chronologically), the film wouldn’t evoke the same type of emotion and feeling. The viewer is not omnipotent; he or she does not know anything that Leonard does not. The viewer is seeing the film and its events in the same way that Leonard is perceiving his life. It is not until the end of the film, when the two time sequences meet, that the viewer becomes more aware than Leonard. If the film were not told in this way, this ending would be no surprise. It would lose its status as a thriller and suspense story.

This being said, while I believe that the film was fascinating and thrilling, keeping me on my toes and eager to find out what came next, I also believe that without this narrative structure, I would have been bored. It is this narrative structure that makes the movie. It is not the story, but how the story is told, that keeps the movie interesting. Taking the same characters, the same plot, and putting it in a traditional order would amount to an okay film, but nothing more than that. It appears that Christopher Nolan (the film’s director) is intending for the audience to be confused. It is this confusion that peeks the viewers interested and keeps him or her glued to the screen. “What just happened? Who is that? Was that what I think it was?” are questions that I myself asked while viewing the movie the first time years ago. I will admit that I was hooked within the first several minutes. However, after watching the film again for this assignment (this being my second viewing), the confusion wasn’t there, and without the confusion, there was no magic. The thrill was gone. While, yes, this can be said of most movies that one has viewed several times, but after only a second viewing, I was surprised at my lack of interest in the narrative compared to my interest during my first viewing. While it feels pretentious to call one of the most popular and greatly reviewed films of the 21^st century gimmicky, it can certainly feel that way after the glitter wears off.

Despite my personal feelings toward it, the film is nonetheless important in cinema and narration. Films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind owe much to its storytelling. The NBC series Blindspot is also eerily similar to Leonard’s struggle (though I admit I have never watched the show and have only seen its trailer). Even Finding Dory, a children’s film about an anthropomorphic fish, bears resemblance to the movie, with its titular character suffering from the same short term memory loss as Leonard. As such, I would grade the movie as a B- for its uniqueness, creativity, and thrills, but also because, just like Leonard’s memory, its appeal fades with time.