Review: The Film, Memento…

Some concepts are tough to illustrate. Take the novel, Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem, for instance, where a handicapped private detective must solve a mystery. The complication is that protagonist and narrator Lionel Essrog‘s handicap is Tourette’s Syndrome. It’s interesting to read/witness, especially how the condition interrupts Lionel’s thinking and complicates his interviewing of suspects. I imagine it wasn’t easy to write.

Let’s consider anterograde amnesia as a complication, the condition that the protagonist in the film Memento has. Anterograde amnesia refers to the inability to create new memories following an injury or a significant event, while long-term memories established before the occurrence remain completely preserved. People suffering from this condition face obstacles in grasping new knowledge or remembering incidents that happened just seconds or minutes earlier (Google Gemini). As a result, if there is no short-term memory, there can be no long-term memory. 

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce, L.A. Confidential), a former insurance investigator, suffered trauma from a brain injury and the loss of his wife, an event he witnessed before being struck on the head. He now spends his time, such as it is, trying to find the man who killed his beloved. He is the neo-noir hardboiled detective who constantly seeks redemption. 

Christopher Nolan (Tenet) helmed and co-wrote this film with his brother Jonathan, whose short story this film is based on. The film deconstructs and reverses traditional mystery tropes. Narrative risks are taken, timelines occur out of sync, murders take place, and the truth, if not a satisfying resolution, remains elusive. The film presents a highly subjective and anxious neo-noir experience by filtering the classic investigator (Pearce), the deceitful woman (Carrie-Ann Moss, The Matrix), and the corrupt authority figure (Joe Pantoliano, The Fugitive) through the perspective of a protagonist with such a crippling handicap that it almost prevents him from solving the mystery.

But let’s get back to the problem of illustrating anterograde amnesia in film and through the main character’s point of view. Shelby tackles his affliction and attempts to meet his goals by taking Polaroid photos, writing notes on the photos and on handy slips of paper, and tattooing major clues on his body. These techniques keep him on task, collate evidence, help him to remember. 

But how does he remember that he has short-term memory loss? And where did he get the idea to be so organized and thorough? 

The film attempts to address these questions first by offering a parallel story about Sammy Jenkis (Stephen Tobolowsky, Groundhog Day), the subject of an insurance investigation case from Shelby’s past. Sammy had anterograde amnesia as well and ended up accidentally overdosing his wife with insulin and spending the rest of his life institutionalized as a result. The film also establishes Shelby’s character by giving him lines such as, “I always thought that the pleasure of a book was wanting to know what happens next,” which hints at the irony of his affliction, and, “I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them,” which illustrates how he can maintain his obsession despite his handicap. 

Critics panned the film’s lack of emotional depth. The plot machinations and the order in which they are presented affect the audience only by the impact of the resolution, not by Shelby’s plight. Indeed, the ending only presents a loop, with no final scene of Shelby suffering. Others nitpick the film’s one-trick pony concept; perhaps they are jealous that they didn’t think of it themselves. The pacing of the film is uneven, especially at the beginning, way before the two storylines intersect. And now that I watched this film a second (or third?) time, I am not floored by the film’s impact. 

I recommend watching this film, trying to put its pieces together, but only once. If you’ve already seen it, you can read this review and remember it that way.