Memento(2000)

Cast : Guy Pierce, Carrie Ann-Moss, Joe Pantoliano

Plot and Summary:

Memento is an Neo-Noir Psycological thriller directed by Christopher Nolan. The film is the life about Leanord Shelby( played by Guy Pierce) who suffers from Short term memory loss, He remembers some incidents of his life untill an incident , He is not capable of making new memories. The film has a very different narrative style, there are two parts of Leonard's life that are played side by side, The one in the Black and White , which is in the past of Leanord past and the other one is color and it is played Backwards , the first scene which we see in the film is the climax of the film, the narrative is similar to that of the way the Protagonist feels each time after a memory loss.

The Film starts with Leonard waking up in a Motel room. He is completely unaware of where he is  , he uses Tatoos in his Body and photos of the people he meet to remember things to do. Much like notes to remember things to do. The main objective of Leonard's life is to find the Murderer- "John G" which he tatoos in his chest and other facts about John in his Body- Access to drugs, Licence plate, Height etc.From the help from Natalie(Played by Carrie Ann-Moss), He finally meets the John G as John Gammell, who is actually Teddy(played by Joe Pantoliano) a friend from the Motel. He takes him to an isolated place and kills him, Just before Teddy gets killed he tells Leonard not to trust his photos and warns him that he would tell what is in basement and the truths of his past but the moment passes and he has a memoryloss again , He kills him and takes a photo to remember it. The rest of the film is about how he finds about John G and the real incidents which leads him to his current state.

The film in the black and white starts with 'Sammy Jankins' one of the tatoos which Leonard has on his left hand and the one which he draws most of his memory of his past life. Leonard was a Insurance investigator and one of his major cases was Sammy jankins. Sammy was suffring from a simialar short term memory loss, Leonard investigates his case and tells that he was faking it and was not eligible for the Insurance money. Sammy;s wife meets him in his office and asks for a honest opinion about her husband, Leonard tells that he was faking it. Sammy's wife is a diabetic person and to prove if Sammy is faking or not asks him to give him an insulin shot continuously for 15 mins , His wife ends up in a Coma and Leonard ends up in home never knowing anything ever happened to his wife , there is glimpse in the scene where Sammy is replaced by Leonard , we know the meaning of the scenes not until the end of the film.

The film explores many aspect of human behavior as such, Teddy and Natalie interactions in Leonard is the film is an example to it. It is like making an interactions with a person who only exists mentally for  15 mins. It is also how memory can be really deceptive, Leonard makes notes of people by the impression he gets when he meets them, he changes the notes from time to time, he himself knows most of the time the photos are unreliable but he has no other choice to believe in them. Leonard's character is one of the interesting ones which is ever used, He never feels time, every day it is like living 15 mins every day over and over again. he himselfs tells in the film in one of the scenes after remembering his wife's murder.
" How am i supposed to heal from the wounds if i don't feel time"

Verdict:

The film ends when the both narrations meet, Leonard narrates his past to someone in the phone in black and white scenes, we don't know who is he taking to until the end. teddy is actually a police investigator he sets up a possible John G for Leonard to meet and the asks him to come to the isolated basement which is the same as the  first scene. Leonard is for the first time in a rugged cloths and walls out of a differnt room in the motel, he meets a Jimmy G in the basements and thinks he is the muderer, after killing him he gets a memory attack and is unaware of what has happened. he meets Teddy in the basements and try to kill him too. It is now that Leonard knows his past completely and he is Sammy jenkins. Teddy tells him that this killing has been going on for years and he now knows that Teddy was just using him to kill random people and all his facts and photos are all false.

At the end when Leonard learns that there is no John G and he is one whi has killed his wife, the ending is quite different from what we would expect, We know that he is going to forget everything is some time, Leonard writes that Teddy is the real John G on the back of his photo " He is the one Kill him".  It is really a bizzare end to the story but the most convincing one. The name of the film is fitting to the story itself - Memento - An object to remember a person or an event, It is one of the brilliant films to ever come and Christopher Nolan does true justice to the story by his brother Jonathan Nolan. The film has been remade in tamil and Hindi as Gajini which as a huge commercial success.