Movie Review by Bill Rendall

Memento

What value is there in a life without memories? The main character of Memento (Guy Pearce) suffers a severe blow to his head while defending his wife from attackers in their home. This results in anterograde amnesia which prevents him from forming any new memories since the incident. To compensate for his memory loss Pearce writes himself notes, takes snapshots with a Polaroid and even tattoos information on his body.

When I first saw this movie I shared Pearce's confusion about previous events. The movie director, Christopher Nolan, achieves this effect by showing many of the movie's scenes in reverse order.

Every scene in the movie either has Pearce in it or is drawn from his memory. There is no background information about other characters beyond Pearce's own experience, hence no certainty about their motives.

I have resisted the temptation to overanalyse Memento. I believe there is no definitive explanation of what happens. Pearce will never know and neither will we. This may frustrate people who like things tied up with a neat solution.

The movie offers an explanation at the end but this comes from an untrustworthy character and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It is claimed that Pearce killed his wife by unknowingly administering an overdose of insulin. Pearce denies she was diabetic and that knowledge would have been in his long term memory. He would not have remembered giving his wife an overdose of insulin since that would have happened after his brain damage. Thus he could not have fabricated this incident happening to the Sammy character.

Memento is in some ways the opposite of Groundhog Day. In Groundhog Day the same day is repeated over and over. Only the central character retains a memory of the previous day and he uses his memory advantage to manipulate other people. In Memento the central character suffers from memory loss and he is the victim of manipulation by other people.

Memento is far darker than Groundhog Day. The central character of Groundhog Day starts off as a bitter man but there is a happy ending when he undergoes a positive transformation and breaks out of his repeating cycle. In Memento Pearce is a bitter man throughout. The only purpose he finds in his life is revenge. There appears to be no release from his cycle of torment.

Incidentally, the Sammy character in Memento is played by Steven Tobolowsky who also appears in Groundhog Day.

Anterograde amnesia is rare but does occur in real life. The most famous case is a man known as HM. He suffered severe epilepsy back in the fifties when less was known about the structure of the brain. In an attempt to stop his seizures a significant part of his brain was surgically removed including the hippocampus. Time was effectively frozen for HM following this surgery.

Memento is not an easy movie to watch but is well worth the effort. It is a welcome change from the mainstream Hollywood formula.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Screenplay: Christopher Nolan based on a story by Jonathan Nolan

Music: David Julyan 

Movie Reviews | Home | Top