Memento

2000

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Screenplay By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Guy Pearce ; Carrie-Anne Moss; Joe Pantoliano

Based On: Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan

In the middle of the night Leonard Shelby awakes to the horrifying sounds of his wife being raped and murdered; he reacts, killing her attacker but a second perpetrator manages to incapacitate him and escape. Plagued by his wife's rape and murder, Leonard Shelby relentlessly scours his world in search of the second perpetrator, who he knows only as "John G." or "James G." Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia, damaging his ability to create new short-term memories, a result from the second perpetrator's attack. During his unyielding search, his disability constructs obstacle after obstacle, but he manages to create a haphazard system of mechanical memory, though intricate, which he believes will one day bring him face to face with the second perpetrator.

Memento owns an imaginative, compelling plot structure and delivery method. As the storyline unfolds, it creates a deep sense of emotional relation with the main character by forcing viewers to experience his disability as if suffering from the same symptoms. The characters are simple and honest, yet present complicated, intriguing personalities, harboring intense natural passions exuding personal confidences in each of their goals.

Guy Pearce (an actor with the ability to play both an antagonist, who you despise more every time his character appears in a scene, and a protagonist, who you wish to succeed and wouldn't mind hanging out with from time to time) portrays "Leonard" as confident and sarcastic, despite his disability, yet undeniably likable; Carrie-Anne Moss (whose natural sexiness supplies her characters' with an involuntary mystique) plays "Natalie," a brazen barmaid with a secret past of her own and a supposed connection to Leonard's search for the second perpetrator; and finally, Joe Pantoliano (a veteran player who never fails to please and surprise) plays "Teddy," allegedly a friend and cohort of Leonard, although offering questionable and, at times, indecipherable advice.

Sitting at my desk, trying to compose a meaningful closing to a critique on one of my favorite films, I look over at the clock, blink a few times, and stare at my computer screen...What am I doing? I'm writing a blog post. I wrote this post? I must have, my name is on it. Why did I write this? I must find out....