MYST #2 Memento Directed By Christopher Nolan

Memento 
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano
I give this movie 3 ½ stars out of 5

Overview:

Leonard Shelby has short-term memory loss and can only hold onto new memories for 5-6 minutes at a time. When the movie begins he is on the hunt for the man that raped and murdered his wife. Leonard has made a system for himself in order to "remember" the important things. His system consists of note writing, taking photos, and tattooing important facts on his body. The other characters in the story are Natalie, a woman who seems to be helping Leonard out of pity because she has also lost someone, and Teddy, a "sketchy" character that we don't really know what to think about.

I decided to watch the rest of the movie after we saw part of it in class. The whole going backwards in time with a guy who has no new memories was extremely intriguing to me. I think this movie intrigues a lot of people because you never can be sure of what the truth is, similar to the way that Leonard doesn't really know what is going on in his life. The twist comes at the end of the movie when we learn that Leonard set himself up to kill Teddy after Teddy and him have a bad confrontation. 

From a critical perspective, this movie utilizes some of the most interesting tactics. Not only are the cinema graphic choices, they are also uncommon, which in and of itself makes this movie stand out. Some of the moat obvious movie choices are that the movie is going in reverse order. This decision helps to make the movie more confusing in a intellectually intriguing way. In compliment to the backward order, the movie also contains black and white scenes that are played in the right order. The odd combination of backwards and forwards confuses us in the beginning, but as the movie goes on, we find that we are starting to understand what is being communicated and we are capable of piecing together some of the bits of the story. In addition to these two rather obvious cinematic choices, there are also the occasional flashbacks that Leonard has that make us question what we thought the story was about. These flashbacks have us starting to wonder if Sammy Jankis and him are really the same person and that Leonard was the one who accidentally killed his wife and went to the mental facility. The confusion in this movie is strange because, while one usually hates a movie that fails to clearly communicate what is going on, in the case of this movie, the confusion adds to the experience of watching the movie. Another obvious, but rather forgotten point is that this movie doesn't show everything, but rather tells. Instead of showing us how some things happen they are explained due to the difficulty of making it fit with the movie. The movie at first seems almost memoir style, but quickly changes to down right confusing. Despite all that though I enjoyed the movie. I didn't mind being confused, it was the hardest I ever had to think during a movie. I think that was what was cool about the movie, the movie makes you think hard to piece together the story and no matter how hard you try you will still be confused just like Leonard.

Something cool I researched quickly was the comparisons people were making between Inception, also by Christopher Nolan, and this movie. Both movies as a blogger stated, "play with your mind and your perception of time and reality". As I have seen Inception, I would definitely agree. I think the idea of comparing the two of these movies to be very interesting. If you like being challenged to think a lot during a movie and trying to solve puzzles is fun to you, you'll probably love this movie.