Memento

Introduction

Memory is the key element which differentiates human beings other creatures; it is the key factor which drives the personality of an individual. Sometimes memory can play a trick or a two, even sometimes memory is shaped up by the perspective of the person being affected (Koch, pp.198)."Memento” is affected by this factor of the memory thus creating a captivating journey throughout the film. Unlike other films, this one is unique in nature as it provides an open-end wonderfully crafted by the motion pictures and leaves the rest to the audience. (Fierman, pp.10) Memento is a journey of a man who stands firmly in order to find justice for his lost love, however, not to forget that he is not fully geared to remember the crime. Memento for surely is an emotional thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan this film is an adaption of Christopher Nolan's younger brother Jonathan Nolan's short story “Memento Mori”. Christopher Nolan's remarkable narrative choice pooled with remarkable yet believable characters makes memento an inspiring visual (www.rottentomatoes.com).

Film revolves around Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), a man who is incapable of accumulating the new memories after receiving a wound on his head as a result of a conflict in order to save his wife from the attackers. Leonardo as a consequence kills one of the attackers; the last thing, which Leonardo remembers, is his wife dying. From there onwards, film is a journey to find a second attacker who killed Leonardo's wife, Leonardo around whom the film revolves suffers a short-term memory loss. Therefore, in order to remember regarding his surroundings, he uses reminders such as stick notes and even his body parts, on the part of the Leonardo it is his strategy to deal with his shortcomings. He also uses pictures of the things he wants to remember, while the most important things such as the name of the murder, a license plate number which may be the property of the murderer, and such things he tattoos on his body parts. (www.imdb.com) Leonardo does have a couple of helpers around him to assist in the probe of his wife's murder. Over the entire stretch of the film, the helpers of the Leonardo include the individuals such as Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and a woman known as Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss). Every time Leonardo meets the two of them, he is absolutely blank about their identity and tends to doubt their intentions whether or not they are working for the same goal as the character of Leonardo himself is. Film Structure

What separates this film from the rest of the films which fall in the same genre is its unique construction. Christopher Nolan intentionally opted to execute the story backwards which compels the audience to act as the protagonist of the film. Like the character of the Leonardo, the audience too does not have a clue other than the ongoing section of the film although they are aware about the past. However, the crucial turning point is presented in the ...