by Cookie N Screen
We just can’t get away from Christopher Nolan. After his ground-breaking, mind boggling Inception and his stunning re-envisioning of the Batman story, Christopher Nolan is hot stuff. Hot stuff? Erm, doesn’t sound right. Hot property? That’s better. Everything he touches is gold and finally, his beautiful looking space epic Interstellar is out so we can transcend within the stars. But before he got involved in caped crusaders, long before studio bosses were throwing all sorts of money at him, Christopher Nolan created Memento, a “will blow your mind” film, all on a shoe-string budget.
We just can’t get away from Christopher Nolan. After his ground-breaking, mind boggling Inception and his stunning re-envisioning of the Batman story, Christopher Nolan is hot stuff. Hot stuff? Erm, doesn’t sound right. Hot property? That’s better. Everything he touches is gold and finally, his beautiful looking space epic Interstellar is out so we can transcend within the stars. But before he got involved in caped crusaders, long before studio bosses were throwing all sorts of money at him, Christopher Nolan created Memento, a “will blow your mind” film, all on a shoe-string budget.
Completely throwing all conventional narrative out of the window, Memento has two different sequences of scenes. In colour, the story is going in reverse. In black and white, the story is going in chronological order. In both, we follow Leonard who has anterograde amnesia; he cannot remember new things. However, since the rape and murder of his wife, Leonard must somehow with clues he has given himself, piece together his own clues in order to find and catch her killer.
Based on a short by Nolan’s brother Jonathan (Memento Mori), Christopher here creates a film that is a puzzle. Much like Leonard, we too are led blindly throughout the story with only the clues that Nolan gives us. This taught and intriguing thriller is both complex and heart pounding. As our brains try to piece together the events that transpire, we, like Leonard are thrown into deeper thought and turmoil as the same story unfolds in different ways. The constant interweaving between the norm and the surreal (the back and the forth,) is a unique and genius way of filmmaking. And let’s not forget the ending that completely blows everything out of the water in a way only M Night Shyamalan could dream of.
Based on a short by Nolan’s brother Jonathan (Memento Mori), Christopher here creates a film that is a puzzle. Much like Leonard, we too are led blindly throughout the story with only the clues that Nolan gives us. This taught and intriguing thriller is both complex and heart pounding. As our brains try to piece together the events that transpire, we, like Leonard are thrown into deeper thought and turmoil as the same story unfolds in different ways. The constant interweaving between the norm and the surreal (the back and the forth,) is a unique and genius way of filmmaking. And let’s not forget the ending that completely blows everything out of the water in a way only M Night Shyamalan could dream of.
Guy Pearce (whom I deem as one of Hollywood's most underused actors,) is fantastic as Leonard; a man caught up in webs with no idea how to untangle them. He gives us a convincing portrayal of amnesia and sucks us in to his edgy and complex life. Carrie Ann Moss as the manipulative Natalie is wonderful and the lesser known Joe Pantoliana as Teddy is wonderful. Here all actors play parts that highlight the dismay and grief of Leonard as his life furthers into the turmoil of his lost wife and the complexity of his brain.
Nolan, as cinema fans would agree now, is a masterpiece of cinema. He gives us stories that even the highest intellect would be try to fathom to this day (spinning top, hello?!) Yet to truly appreciate the ingenuity of Nolan, I would urge you to take a look at his other non-Batman work; The Prestige, for a start, being a highly underrated gem of his career and then this, Memento. Hailed as an accurate portrayal of anterograde amnesia, Memento is a dark mind game that makes the audience work for its entertainment. Much like the brilliant Inception, Memento is layered with mystery, clues and intrigue.
So give your brain a film it will never forget.
Nolan, as cinema fans would agree now, is a masterpiece of cinema. He gives us stories that even the highest intellect would be try to fathom to this day (spinning top, hello?!) Yet to truly appreciate the ingenuity of Nolan, I would urge you to take a look at his other non-Batman work; The Prestige, for a start, being a highly underrated gem of his career and then this, Memento. Hailed as an accurate portrayal of anterograde amnesia, Memento is a dark mind game that makes the audience work for its entertainment. Much like the brilliant Inception, Memento is layered with mystery, clues and intrigue.
So give your brain a film it will never forget.
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