Christopher Nolan's "Memento" paints a truly haunting and thought-provoking portrait of truth within lies in the mind of a man suffering from anterograde amnesia.
Throughout the film, the audience watches and feels increasing sympathy for the main character, who goes back and forth between being horribly frustrated and completely complacent as he becomes aware and then unaware of his situation. The people in his life come in and out of focus as friends or foes. Natalie, who you want to trust, remains shrouded in mystery as hints of he involvement in drug rings resurface. Teddy, the man who may or may not be an undercover cop, is not only a nervous and untrustworthy presence, but Leonard has the Polaroid in his own handwriting warning not to believe him. He also warns Leonard against Natalie, whose Polaroid note works in her favor. When Teddy reveals that he's been using Leonard to kill guilty men off the street, our suspicions are confirmed--Teddy is a dirty cop. As Leonard chases his wife's killer, his only moment of true lucidity is when he decides to target Teddy, who is a John G himself. Since Teddy fits all of the pieces that Leonard needs, some he even made up, is he not the man Leonard is looking for?
After each supposed murder, Lenny makes up a new murderer, distorting facts such as taking Teddy's license plate number, or taking out 12 pages of his police file, to fit a new target, he seems the most honest. He realizes that Teddy has been using him, and so aims to put an end to it. It's not just Teddy, it's a game he has to play to keep living, maybe with the hope that the next victim will stay, and make a memory of vengeance achieved.
"It's a game he has to play to keep living, maybe with the hope that the next victim will stay, and make a memory of vengeance achieved." I think you hit the nail on the head with this statement. Lenny depends on his detective game in order to have a reason for living. Teddy, for better or worse, just happens to get in his way. Lenny’s psychology is fascinating with his desperate search for a murderer who no longer exists. Without his memory, he is destined to repeat the same process over and over. But as you said, it is his personal game of survival, and on some unconscious level, he knows it. If it was not a means of survival, then he would have tattooed a reminder of the revenge he achieved before the movie’s start on his chest. In the end, his vengeful quest makes him a murderer just as dangerous, or perhaps even more so, than the one he seeks.
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