Movies You May Not Know – Memento

Grab your seats, class is in session.

I received a decent response for my new idea here so I’m going to give it a shot to keep it going. Hopefully one a week, if I can. The Professor does slack some though, so you’ll forgive me if I miss a week here and there.

This week I’m going to delve into one that’s a little bit more of a mind-screw. It can be a little on the tough side to follow, but if you pay attention, you should really enjoy it. This week I’m talking about:

Ever watched parts of a movie backwards? Course not, who would. This movie, however, this movie doesn’t give you a choice as that’s what it spends a lot of time doing. It essentially has two different time-lines that run at the same time, one depicted in full color, the other depicted in black and white. The black and white scenes play in the proper chronological order, while the color scenes actually play in reverse chronologically. While it sounds somewhat silly and overcomplicated, it actually makes for a very fascinating movie. It can be difficult to follow, but if you pay attention, it all makes sense in the end. This is definitely not a “background noise, turn your brain off” kind of movie. You need to pay full attention and be in the mood for a movie that will make you think.

This is a very early on Christopher Nolan movie, based on a story his brother Jonathan had written. It’s another one of those movies that has a small, but very familiar cast. The main three are Guy Pearce (Iron Man 3, The King’s Speech), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix trilogy), and Joey “Pants” Pantoliano (The Fugitive, The Sopranos). The basic premise of the movie is that Leonard Shelby (Pearce) is attacked in his home along with his wife. His wife is murdered and in an attempt to rescue her, Shelby is struck in the head which causes anterograde amnesia (yes, I looked that one up). Essentially what it means is he is able to retain long-term memories from before he was struck, but he can not create new memories or remember recent events. In an attempt to solve his wife’s murder, Shelby begins to take photographs of everything and everyone he comes across in his search, keeping notes on the photos, and going so far as to have clues tattooed all over his body so that he doesn’t forget anything. Unfortunately there isn’t much else I can explain about the story without giving away major spoilers, but believe me when I say the movie is amazing. Watching Shelby trying to piece everything together from images and tattoos, often times from things he simply can not remember, is amazing. You can feel the frustration from times he is unable to put clues together that he only discovered moments before or the panic that sets in when he is frantically trying to write something down and can not find a pen to do so, only to have it all disappear in the blink of an eye as his mental illness acts like a reset button.

Pearce is awesome in this movie. Like I mentioned previously, he is really able to draw you in far enough to feel his frustration, his panic, and just that feeling of being totally lost like someone with this illness would be. While I believe a lot of that also comes from the way the movie is filmed, his performance in combination with that is what completely makes the film work. Pantoliano is very similar to the character you see him play most of the time: the Eddie Haskell like nice guy who you just know has a slimy, seedy other side to him that you only see when he has no other choice. For those who don’t know the Eddie Haskell reference, he was a kid who was always overly pleasant and kind around parents, but caused mischief and trouble when they weren’t around. Moss is a barmaid that Pearce’s character comes across during his search and believes has information he needs to help solve the murder. Unfortunately again, I can’t go much deeper into either of those characters without giving away major spoilers, so I’ll just hope you trust me when I tell you that these two play their roles fantastically.

Honestly, the best parts about this movie are the story and how it’s filmed. It’s just amazing. It is purposely designed and filmed to make you feel like Pearce’s character and to truly empathize with his struggles as he tries to figure it all out. If you are into that kind of movie, you will no doubt find yourself lost in it before too long. If you like thrillers and movies that will make you think, you’ll definitely enjoy this movie.

Until next time….

Class dismissed.