Memento
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Pathe
On general release
Rating:4/4
Memento is a triumph: a thriller concerned with issues of identity and
memory that confounds its audience and gives them a share in the mental
state of its hero. Intimate photography, convincing performances, and a complex plot,
laden with misperception and deceit, help to
achieve this. The story is narrated back.
wards, interwoven with a parallel, explanatory tale. Each scene offers half an answer,
only for the next to refute it.
Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, an
insurance investigator determined to revenge
his wife's murder by two intruders into his
home. Shelby kills one of them, only for the
second to deal him a blow leaving him brain
damaged, unable to make new memories, but
leaving his long term memory intact. Every
event disappears from his mind after 15 minutes. Ironically, before the attack Shelby had
investigated the insurance claim of a man,
Sammy Jenkis, who claimed to have the same
condition. Learning from Jenkis, Shelby
retains information by taking photos of
people he meets, places he stays, and the car
he drives, annotating them with comments,
such as, "Don't trust his lies." He also tattoos
clues, names, and numbers over his body,
transforming it into an eerie reminder of the
vengeance he seeks.
We follow Shelby through California as
he hunts the second assailant, using
information gleaned from police reports,
official records, and friends. On the way he is
helped by Natalie (Carrie.Ann Moss) the
wily ex.girlfriend of a drug dealer and the
creepy Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), both of
whom seem to have their own dubious
motives for helping him. As each scene
progresses, our analysis of Natalie and
Teddy change-the innocent become guilty
and the guilty innocent. Like Shelby, we can
base our opinions only on incomplete facts;
like Shelby we are persistently misled. The
film concludes with an unsettling explanation of all that has gone before, a
dénouement that demonstrates the extent of
our misconceptions.
Memento is challenging not only in its
plot, but also in the issues it raises. Shelby
deceives himself to give his life meaning. Do
we do the same? He has a condition that
allows him to forget his lies. Do we
unconsciously (or consciously) obliterate
our memories? And if you cannot remember the past how can you possibly act
correctly in the future?
The film's main success, though, is in the
viewers' experience of Shelby's condition. By
the film's end we gain a sense of communion
with him, understanding nothing, confused,
misled, beguiled. This is as close as it gets to
entering someone's mind.
Stephen Ford, fourth year medical student, University of Liverpool
Email: md0u7141@liv.ac.uk
studentBMJ 2001;09:43-84 March ISSN 0966-6494
