Sept. 15, 2002 - 5:03 pm
i decided that i needed to see it again since i hadn't seen it since it was on at the theater. a coworker had asked me a couple of weeks ago to explain the plot to her and i was sort of drawing a blank because i had forgotten so many of the facts. this is definitely one of those films that you have to watch a few times for it to completely solidify in your mind. but i'm sure everyone's already seen this film so i'm going to include a description that'll include some spoilers in a minute. so again, look away if you haven't seen it.
this movie is number 10 on the IMDb's top 250 list today, so yeah pretty much everyone that watches this movie really likes it. it's extremely original in the way that it's edited together. the idea of using the memory loss condition as well as the polaroid pictures is, however, not exactly new. probably the best and most recent example of where these things appeared were in the character of Rene in the great Tom Tykwer's Winterschl�fer (1997). he had the same exact memory condition and took polaroids to help himself remember facts. of course, that film is in German, so chances are that 99% of America has not seen that excellent film unfortunately.
anyway, Memento is probably one of the most complicated editing and plot creations in the past decade. the idea is that Leonard (played by Guy Pearce) has a condition where he can't make any new memories. he can remember who he is and facts about his former life, but since his "incident," he can't remember anything new for more than a few minutes. now it gets really complicated quickly when you start talking about the way that they edited this story together. they're trying to make the viewing audience feel the same way that Leonard does. we watch the story basically backwards. from finish to start. you watch about 1-10 minutes of the story straight through, then it skips backwards to the previous scene and moves forwards for a few minutes again until you get back to the beginning of the part you just watched. in that way you don't know what came before, and can only remember things from "the past" for just a few minutes as he does. now comes the spoiler section...
ok, basically my take on what happens in the film is this. Sammy Jankis never existed. everything that happened to him was actually happening to Leonard. his wife survived the attack and then he eventually killed his own wife in the "insulin incident." because he couldn't deal with the fact that he had killed her himself, he created the idea that a second attacker had existed and gotten away. how did he sustain the injury if there was no second attacker? i don't know. maybe he slipped and hit his own head when he was running into the bathroom, but still got his shot off and killed the single attacker. in any case, there was no second man. i'm sure if you weren't confused by this film, you have figured out your own truth to what happened and it may or may not be similar to what i said. but if you're searching for an answer, well there's one possibility for you.
a great film. you need to watch it at least a few times. or you could just obsess over it since it's a ten and will be talked about for years and years to come.