Everybody Lies

I did not like this movie. When I watch a movie, I like relaxing. I put my mind on autopilot and glide to the happy ending, with convenient bathroom breaks during predictably scary and sad parts. With Memento my brain’s movie GPS was irrevocably confused. Forcing it to stray from the beloved pattern of romantic comedies and venture into the unknown realm of… the unknown.

Regardless of whether I enjoyed the film, Memento was appropriate to the themes of this class. Memento successfully blurred the lines between truth and fiction- making it nearly impossible to detect where truth ends and lies begin. This film reminds the viewer that memory is duplicitous.

Leonard, the main character- a man who suffers from a rare form of memory loss; he can remember the past, but cannot form new memories. Leonard lives his to avenge his wife’s rape and murder. He hunts down the murder throughout the movie but is denied the sweet flavor of revenge because he cannot remember if he actually killed his wife’s murder. In effect, Leonard tells himself that his wife’s murderer is still at large, when in reality he is her murderer.
Leonard says, “Do I lie to myself to be happy?... Yes I do.” However, do Leonard’s lies make him any different from normal people? Just because Leonard’s bases his life on lies, does not mean his life is meaningless. All people lie, to make themselves feel better. Even if Leonard bases his entire existence after his wife’s death on a lie, his life is imbibed with meaning, because he has a purpose.

I like movies that have a moral or those that make me feel good. This movie was left me confused, saddened and with a residual feeling of immorality, like the soap scum on a shower curtain.