Memento Review

I watched memento during my first TOK class, and found it very interesting. Unlike other movies, this does not start off with the beginning of the plot but starts from the end of the movie making its way to the beginning where everything started.   

Memento is a psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan, which was released in 2000.  The film is presented in to two different series; black and white, and colour. The black and white sequence shows the things happening chronologically whilst the colour sequence is shown in the reverse order. Until they meet in the middle of the story in the end where it combines to produce one mutual story.
The story is about a man named Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce, who is suffering from a short-term memory loss. He uses picture with notes and tattoos to help him find the man (John G) who he thinks killed his wife by rape. We see him talking on a phone, telling a story about a man named Sammy Jenkins with a short-term memory loss, who without knowingly killed his diabetic wife by over injecting her with insulin, after she tried to be sure that he was not faking the illness. However, towards the end we find out that this ‘Sammy Jenkins’ was actually Leonard Shelby himself, and he was the person to accidentally kill his wife. However, he does not want to believe in the truth therefore he makes his own truth up to keep him happy, thus carries out his mission to look for a ‘John G’.

In my opinion this movie has a strong connection between the main character and the people watching. When Lenny (Leonard) realizes something it s when we start to add the movie together, as if like we are in the story with him. The main character is alone most of the time or always with one other character. We also get to hear the things he says when he talks to himself. This makes us feel closer to him and makes it seem more realistic.

There were a few times where I would go off track as it could be a bit confusing, however by the end of the movie the whole story comes together. I love the idea of using black and white and colour cinematography in a sequence to show the different time period and how it merges together in the middle.