MYST Q2 Post # 1

Memento (2000)

SPOILER ALERT

The first film I watched in my spare time this quarter was Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller, Memento (2000).  We began watching this film in class and it interested me enough to finish it at home.  I was not disappointed.  The film follows Leonard Shelby (Guy Pierce), a man who cannot form any new memories in the aftermath of some accident.  The whole film, he is determined to kill a man named Teddy, who he believes killed his wife and caused his injury.  The movie flips between black and white scenes, which are portrayed in chronological order, and color scenes which are played in reverse order.     While this may seem confusing at first, the end of the movie ties the two together with a twist ending.  To me, this movie was great.  It was interesting enough to keep you watching, despite the somewhat confusing layout of the scenes, and the ending really made it worth watching.  Overall, I rate this movie 4/5 stars.
The first and most obvious thing to comment on in the film is the artsy, experimental style used to both film and organize the scenes.  There will be scattered close ups and shaky camera techniques at time that feel unconventional, meant to accent certain moments of the film.  The use of the two different clips, the color and black and white, kept the movie feeling fresh and unique, accenting the psychological theme of the film.
There are several repeated themes throughout the movie, including loss, grief, and above all perception.  While the whole movie Leonard relies on written notes, Polaroid photographs, and tattoos on his body to remember events and people, the end of the movie takes a big twist when it turns out someone has been messing with his perception of reality.  The whole film he reminds himself using a tattoo on his hand to 'Remember Sammy Jankis", who he believed to be an example of his condition, but in the end turned out to represent himself.
Overall, the film is a breath of fresh air from the conventional Hollywood film and will keep the viewer interested.  The twist ending really makes the film and personally reminded me of the ending in Shutter Island (which came out 6 years later but I saw first) in that it completely flips the plot.  It was a solid film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9lOnmnj0IY

This is Leonard's explanation of who Sammy Jankis was.  Note the heavy irony of the situation: he refers to Sammy writing himself notes, but getting mixed up, which in the end is Leonard's case.  It turns out that Leonard was his lawyer for the insurance company, and after examining his condition, he determines that he is faking it, and denies him extra coverage, earning himself a bonus.  In the end it turns out the fate he thought Sammy recieved, accidentally killing his wife by forgetting he already gave her her insulin shot, was actually his own fate, and that his wife did not die in the accident he thought she did.