Memento is, save perhaps for the conceit that allows Leonard to remember his condition, a perfect film. It's noirish and mysterious without being campy, well paced, acted, edited, and written, and is just a treat to revisit time and again to catch on more/quicker things that Nolan and co. do with the story. And the remembering you have no memory thing almost even gets a pass because Leonard does say that repetition could teach people with his condition. It's how he knows to read his tattoos and not constantly be surprised by them (some of them do surprise him, but mostly the new ones--when he looks in a mirror, he knows the tattoos will be there).
The structure of the film works because it's not just a conceit. It forces you into Leonard's perspective (as you say, it is all about perspective) but is so much more satisfying than the way he enjoys the story because you also have longer term memory that can track the story (although the overlaps at each scene were really essential to doing that because even the audience starts to forget what came before).
I like the idea that we can evaluate and he can't--I know I knew that, intrinsically, but never thought about it like that. Leonard is a child, one who can walk and talk and kill without understanding the consequences of his actions or feel resolution because of them. He is forever temporary about his life. Because he's stuck in this immediate sense of oh-my-god-someone-is-hurting-someone-i-love and because his condition leaves him vulnerable to predation, you have so much pity for him. But he's a dangerous creature. There is character and story to him because he's not an easily resolved problem or an inherently likeable guy. He was shown to be something of a prick before his accident, and he's paranoid and lethal afterwards. No one in the film is terrific, which I like a lot, too. Everyone tries to pull one over on Leonard (and does). I think Joey Pantaliano's Teddy is closest to being a good guy. In the scene where he confesses to Leonard what they've been doing, there's a real sense of regret and sadness that he's been unable to help Leonard (even as he admits to profitting by it). I believe that once this was an arrangement that did more good than harm. But Teddy's disillusionment killed it (and he's not wrong for hoping there's a fix; even Natalie, who hated Leonard, wanted to believe she could fix him).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-05-30 07:48 pm (UTC)The structure of the film works because it's not just a conceit. It forces you into Leonard's perspective (as you say, it is all about perspective) but is so much more satisfying than the way he enjoys the story because you also have longer term memory that can track the story (although the overlaps at each scene were really essential to doing that because even the audience starts to forget what came before).
I like the idea that we can evaluate and he can't--I know I knew that, intrinsically, but never thought about it like that. Leonard is a child, one who can walk and talk and kill without understanding the consequences of his actions or feel resolution because of them. He is forever temporary about his life. Because he's stuck in this immediate sense of oh-my-god-someone-is-hurting-someone-i-love and because his condition leaves him vulnerable to predation, you have so much pity for him. But he's a dangerous creature. There is character and story to him because he's not an easily resolved problem or an inherently likeable guy. He was shown to be something of a prick before his accident, and he's paranoid and lethal afterwards. No one in the film is terrific, which I like a lot, too. Everyone tries to pull one over on Leonard (and does). I think Joey Pantaliano's Teddy is closest to being a good guy. In the scene where he confesses to Leonard what they've been doing, there's a real sense of regret and sadness that he's been unable to help Leonard (even as he admits to profitting by it). I believe that once this was an arrangement that did more good than harm. But Teddy's disillusionment killed it (and he's not wrong for hoping there's a fix; even Natalie, who hated Leonard, wanted to believe she could fix him).
And sorry about the CKR oversite. I forgotted.