Memento is an 2000 American psychological thriller film that was directed and produced by Christopher Nolan. The movie starts out with a polaroid photograph of a dead man. As the sequence keeps going, the viewer realizes that the scene is going backwards. The film then continues to alternate between black-and-white sequences that are shown chronologically, and color sequences that are shown in reverse and which simulate the mental state of the protagonist. The two sequences “meet” at the end of the film, building a complete narrative. Due to a past trauma, Leonard Shelby, the protagonist, suffers under a condition called anterograde amnesia which doesn’t allow him to make new memories. The last thing he remembers is the murder of his wife and Leonard is trying to find him and kill him. In the black-and-white sequences, the protagonist keeps telling about a fellow anterograde amnesiac, Sammy Jankins. Sammy’s diabetic wife, who wasn’t sure if his condition was genuine, repeatedly requested insulin, hoping that he would remember and stop himself. However, Sammy continues to give her the injections until his wife falls into a fatal comma. In the end, the viewer finds out that Leonard’s wife survived the murder incident but that he killed her through an insulin overdose as Sammy’s story is Leonard’s himself, repressing the memory to escape guilt.
I thought that the movie was interesting and I really liked the story. However, I found it hard to follow the plot because the narrative was in reverse. I kept thinking the movie is going forward but after every scene I had to remind myself that it is going backward. It just makes it harder to understand and more confusing. Nevertheless, it’s an innovative way to structure a movie and I quite like how in the end the black-and-white sequence and the color sequence “meet” and produce a complete narrative. Even though it can be hard to follow the plot, the viewer gets an insight into how Leonard perceives his life since the incident, making it more relatable. Overall, I think it’s a successful movie.
