The second film in my in-depth analysis of the the films of Christopher Nolan. Is the engrossing twisting thriller Memento. With such a riveting and complex story as Following ( Nolan's first film) one might think that Christopher Nolan would fall into a sophomore slump, relying on some of the same plot devices and story telling gimmicks that were in his first film. However, with Memento, Nolan proves that he can consistently create an engaging film experience, one that changes with each additional viewing.
The plot of the film is deceptively simple. A man, Leonard (Guy Pierce) is trying to track down the men responsible for the rape and murder of his wife. He is aided in this quest by Teddy ( Joe Pantoliano) and Natalie ( Carrie- Anne Moss). However there are a few plot devices that make this simple story into a serpentine labyrinth of manipulation, double-crosses, and a questioning of reality.
"Do I lie to myself to be happy?" Leonard
The first plot device that Nolan uses that elevates the film to something extraordinary is Leonard's state of mind. Ever since the attack on his wife, Leonard has been diagnosed with anterograde amnesia . Simply put, Leonard has short term memory loss; he can't make new memories. Throughout the film he has to rely on pictures ( and other "mementos") and his own hand written notes to fit the pieces of the puzzle (that is his life) together. As the film progresses, Nolan illustrates just how fragile our memory can be by showing how these things can be manipulated to alter Leonard's behavior and his understanding of the world around him. Leonard's story then becomes Nolan's allegory to how dependent memory is on interpretation and context. This idea is rooted in Sociology, specifically in the theoretical framework of Social Constructionism.
" What is real, is real in its consequences."
Introduced in the United States by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in the book entitled The Social Construction of Reality, Social constructionism understands that our knowledge (and by extension our very reality) is based upon a set of social conditions that are interpreted by individuals. If those interpretations are collectively understood by a group of people they become "real" to that group. Everyday behavior, as well as complex moral and philosophical ideas of good and evil, right and wrong, are all socially constructed and context dependent. What is good and moral in one part of the world at one particular point in history, may be immoral and wrong in another part at another time. The only reason anything has meaning is because it is given meaning by individuals. Once that is established, that meaning needs to be agreed upon and passed down to the next generation through the process of social learning known as socialization. At that point, reality is constructed. Nolan shows the audience how easy this constructed knowledge can be altered and thereby change our perceptions of the world and our actions within it. With that, Nolan forces the audience to take on the Sociological perspective in examining their own life in how dependent we are on our own perceptions. This plays on a common question: "Would I have made the same decision ( or acted differently) if I would have more (or less) information?" While in our world hindsight is 20/20; in Nolan's story there is no hindsight, there is only the present, only the reality that Leonard is actively creating. At the film's climax the audience realizes the dangers of this unchecked social construction due to a lack of self reflection (or in Leonard's case, an inability to be self reflexive).
The second plot device that makes Memento an extraordinary film is Nolan's used of a reverse chronology storytelling. With a few rewound shots in the beginning of the film, Nolan cements in the audiences mind that the events of the film are happening in reverse order. Helped by overlapping the end and beginning of a particular scene the audience is not only trying to understand the story, but they are piecing the plot and character's together along with Leonard as if they were in Leonard's mind. This device allows for thrilling character reveals and plot twist that would be seen as boring and predicable if told in a linear fashion. I would go so far as to say the film only works because of this device. It takes a clear picture and turns it into a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. In fact, the only reason the audience can be "self reflexive" as previously mentioned, is because they have gone on this journey with Leonard and unlike him, they carry the weight and consequences of his actions...something that he can never do.Memento is the film that brought Christopher Nolan to the attention of the mainstream. It was a huge critical success and opened a lot of doors for him to make a lot of his subsequent work. This film was so lauded by critics that there are many who believe that this is where he peaked, and all of his other films are pale imitations of this success. I disagree.
While I believe this film to be brilliant and sociologically relevant, it only serves as a taste of Nolan's capabilities as a writer and a director. While there are similarities between Memento and the rest of Nolan's work in tone, and theme they are not the same film because he asks different questions about the human condition and our capacity to understand both ourselves and the social world around us. That, in part, is what makes him great.
