Christopher Nolan’s movie Memento, which premiered in 2000, revolves around the struggles of the main character—Leonard—to track down his wife’s killer while coping with chronic short-term memory loss. In the opening scenes of the movie, we witness Leonard kill Teddy, who he believes is the man who murdered his wife. From this point on, the movie travels back in time, showing the viewer the moments preceding what we just witnessed up until they intersect chronologically. Slowly we learn that this man was previously a close associate of Leonard’s, and that Leonard has devised what he claims is a “foolproof” system of notes that he leaves for himself in order to track down his wife’s killer. Shockingly, we eventually learn that the man who Leonard murders at the start of the film is only one of a long line of men that he has killed while searching for his wife’s killer. In the final scenes of the film (chronologically the beginning), we witness Teddy telling Leonard that his wife was not actually murdered, but that she survived the break-in in which Leonard’s brain was injured; she actually died from an insulin overdose that Leonard administered to her, and Leonard murdered her real attacker years ago. Upset by Teddy’s revelation, Leonard plants false evidence for himself incriminating Teddy that ultimately leads him to murder Teddy at the film’s outset.
Watching this movie was a real psychological rollercoaster. Leonard’s condition reminded me of the patients described in Oliver Sack’s book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, who are similarly lost in time without any ability to form new memories (although those patients had far less personal agency than Leonard). I thought the use of a non-linear time structure was captivating and highly effective—just watching it makes you go a little crazy trying to imagine how the heck one would have any bearing on the world if this was their state of mind. Moving backwards through time was an excellent way to put the viewer in a similarly disoriented mindset, while maintaining the dramatic climax that a regular chronological movie would have.
