Memento

I have planned to see this film after heard that this was the base of mega hit Tamil movie 'Ghajini' a Surya starrer.

I have seen this Memento on 17-04-2008. Wow Its wonderful movie. I have to admit that Memento is in comparable with the Commercial shit 'Ghajini'. Surya did nothing but overact with sex bomb Asin and Item Number Nayanthara.

I admired to the story of Memento, screenplay and the twist. This is a complex story to tell because the color scenes are told in reverse chronological order while the black and white scenes are done in chronological order

I just given below the extract review of this wonderful movie from rottentomato.com and this film got 94% mark.

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) wears expensive, European tailored suits, drives a late model Jaguar sedan, but lives in cheap, anonymous motels, paying his way with thick wads of cash. Although he looks like a successful businessman, his only work is the pursuit of vengeance: tracking and punishing the man who raped and murdered his wife. His suspicions dismissed by the police, Leonard's life has become an all-consuming quest for justice. The difficulty, however, of locating his wife's killer is compounded by the fact that Leonard suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his "accident", Leonard can't remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he is, where he's going or why. A former insurance investigator, Leonard is keenly aware of his handicap. Moreover, he's got the discipline to compensate as well as the motivation-the cruel memory of his beloved wife's last moments. Haunted by what he's lost, he's re-built his life out of index cards, photographs, file folders, charts, tattoos and obsessive habits that stand in for memory, fixing him in space and time and connecting him to his mission. Out of necessity, Leonard must rely on others despite being thoroughly ill-equipped to assess either their motives or basic decency. Leonard remembers his past-up to a point. But just who has Leonard become since losing the ability to hold together the fragments of himself? "Memento" mines this psychological terrain, using non-linear film narrative to mirror Leonard's own effort to interpret the random pieces of evidence he hoards. The murder, rewound in the opening frames, we discover, is logically the endpoint of Leonard's story. What we learn comes from a point earlier in time, a few moments and a few sentences prior to what we've already been shown. As Leonard's story unfolds, the meaning of events changes. Allies, enemies, victims, victimizers swap place almost kaleidoscopically.

This review is from IMDB

This is a complex story to tell because the color scenes are told in reverse chronological order while the black and white scenes are done in chronological order. Both the color and black and white scenes are alternately interspersed throughout the movie in a set pattern. This is done by director Christopher Nolan and his crew in order to confuse and bewilder the audience. He states it is to put the viewer in the shoes of Memento's protagonist Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) and experience what he is going through. He crafts the film such that new bits and pieces of information are given out with each color and b&w scene until their time lines meet.

Memento is presented here in chronological order for simplification: Leonard Shelby wakes up in an motel room puzzled why he is there. The phone rings and he begins to have a conversation with an unknown caller. He starts telling the story of one Sammy Jankis (Stephen Tobolowsky). Shelby says Jankis was a man who claimed to suffer from short-term memory loss or anterograde amnesia. Any new memories and experiences are forgotten within a few minutes.

Leonard was a former insurance investigator assigned to determine if Jankis' condition would be covered under his insurance policy. After testing, Leonard concluded that Jankis' condition was psychological and his claim was denied. Sammy's wife (Harriet Sansom Harris) is a diabetic who was convinced by Leonard (in trying to placate her), that Sammy could indeed make new memories. Afterwards, she tested Sammy to see if he could remember. But he repeatedly gave her insulin injections and she lapsed into a coma and died from overdose. It was a form of suicide because she could not deal with his condition anymore. Poor Sammy was confined to a mental institution not even able to remember his wife's death.

Next, Leonard recounts how his wife Catherine Shelby (Jorja Fox) died. One night, two men broke into their home and raped and murdered Catherine. Leonard shot one intruder dead but a second man ambushed him from behind and forced his head into a mirror. It was with such great force that Leonard developed anterograde amnesia. His last permanent memory was seeing his wife dying on the bathroom floor. Lenny wants revenge for Catherine's death and becomes determined to find and kill the second intruder.

He develops a system to help compensate for his condition. This involves getting important facts and messages tattooed on his body, taking Polaroid photographs, and writing notes to himself. Avenging his wife's death becomes the prime directive in his life whenever he wakes up or forgets what he is going to do. Apparently one can condition themselves to cope with the memory loss by repetition and thus be able to function in daily routines. Lenny has "remember Sammy Jankis" tatooed on his hand to remind him of his condition. There are also tatooed clues to the second intruder's identity such as "drug dealer," "male," "white", his name is "John or James G_______."

We find out later it is Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) who is the mysterious caller. He tells Lenny that the murderer is a drug dealer, and that he can be found at an abandoned warehouse. Lenny goes to the rundown building and kills a man named Jimmy Grants (Larry Holden).

A few minutes later, Teddy arrives at the building, and Lenny discovers he has been tricked. Jimmy Grants was indeed a drug dealer but did not have anything to do with his wife's killing. Teddy reveals that Leonard's wife survived the robbers' attack, but she died from an insulin overdose administered by Leonard.

According to Teddy, Sammy Jankis was a fraud who was not even married. Teddy claims to be police officer John Gammel. He says he took pity on Leonard and helped him track down and kill the real John G. more than a year ago. Teddy thought that killing the second man would regain Leonard's memory back. However, Leonard forgot this happened and began searching for John G. again. Teddy finally admits to manipulating Leonard to kill Jimmy for the $200,000 in the drug dealer's car. He had set Jimmy up to bring money by falsely claiming to have drugs.

Before Lenny can forget Teddy's revelations, he sets himself up to kill Teddy. He records Teddy's license plate number as John G's, leaving himself a note reminding him to have the car's license number "SG137IU" tattooed. Leonard takes Jimmy's clothing and Jaguar car and drives to a tattoo parlor. He ditches Teddy by throwing his car keys into some tall weeds. At the parlor, Leonard finds a note in his pocket from Jimmy's girlfriend Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss).

Forgetting that he is wearing Jimmy's clothes, he thinks the note is for him and goes to the bar where Natalie works. After meeting her, he tells her about his condition. Natalie offers to help Leonard, but she later tricks him into going after a man named Dodd (Callum Keith Rennie), who has been harassing Natalie for the money from Jimmy's prior drug deals. After confronting Dodd, Lenny forces him to leave town.

After getting rid of Dodd for Natalie, she in return has John G's license plate traced. She gives Leonard a copy of John Edward Gammel's driver's license, and he matches it to his photo of Teddy. He concludes Teddy is the "John G" who he has been looking for and is the man who raped and killed his wife. All the other John or James Gs Lenny has killed have been forgotten. He takes Teddy to the abandoned building where Jimmy Grants was killed a few days before, and shoots him in the head.