Self-Manipulation

In Leonard’s quest for revenge, the possibility of manipulation by others is fairly obvious to the audience (and even Leonard himself), and speculating who around Leonard is manipulating him is an interesting and necessary conversation.  Let us not, however, ignore another important form of manipulation that occurs in this movie, self-manipulation.  Every time Leonard loses his memory, he has to, in a sense, recapture his identity, and he tries his hardest to make sure that he will always remember his wife’s death. 

They say everything heals with time, but with Leonard, his rage will never go away.  After every memory lapse, he will “wake up” clueless, and as he gains bearings of his surroundings, something, whether it is the tattoo inked across his chest or the documents in his hands, will trigger those same feelings of anger.  Perhaps the tragedy of the situation is that the desire for revenge will never get old.  Imagine feeling intense feelings of anger every 15 minutes or so, and one can get a sense of Leonard’s life.  Even when he fulfills his revenge and gets another tattoo to remind him of that, every memory lapse results in new feelings of grief for the woman that revenge cannot bring back. 

Although, the decision to make the unfortunate moments of his life salient forever by tattooing them to his body may seem foolish in hindsight, one must still appreciate how Leonard has taken advantage of his own memory loss.  He has made himself the perfect avenger.  

This Class Has Really Just Been A Plug For The School Motto

It's pretty neat that Memento is in alternating reverse chronological order.

But it's so much more than that. It's a complete philosophical assault on the the idea of memory. 

Leonard bases his entire life off of Polaroids with notes written on them and tattoos, which leaves him susceptible to manipulation. However, Leonard is fairly confident of his ability to remain in control. He criticizes Teddy's notion of the importance of memories, which he says "irrelevant if you have the facts." Yet Leonard is the victim of constant manipulation.

As an audience member watching Leonard desperately try to cope with his constant lack of awareness, it is easy to feel superior. But how reliable is our own memory, even though it is intact?

In a famous study by Elizabeth Loftus, researchers convinced people that they had been on a hot air balloon as a child, even though they had not. In another study, participants were shown a video of a car accident. Using leading questions, the researchers were able to manipulate the person's perceptual memory of the accident. There have also been several (highly controversial) cases where psychiatrists have supposedly manipulated their patients into developing false memories that include rape, physical abuse and satanic rituals. This is in people with no previous memory issues.

Memento serves as a parallel to the issue of the reliability of our own memory. Leonard realizes he has a memory issue; but he believes he knows its root and he thinks he has created an effective coping mechanism.  Not really, as you have probably found out.

But other than other people's unreliable testimony, Leonard has no way to verify his memory. In a similar manner, we don't have a good method for verifying our memory or who we are. In verifying our memories by talking to other people, we may end up changing our memories.

There is nothing more central to truth than our personal experience. Everything is interpreted through our own cranial lens, and the most effective way to manipulate someone is by making them believe that the manipulative beliefs are their own, much like a virus tricks its host into replicating viral DNA which the host believes is its own.

As we discussed after reading Aura, this course has followed a pattern of 'closing the distance' of truth. Cat's Cradle was the most far removed because it was outlandish, and Memento is the least removed, because it questions the reliability of self.

So how can we understand truth, if we don't understand ourselves?

The answer is simple:

Know Thyself.

Yay Memento!

I have never seen Memento before, and was wondering how a movie could pertain enough to what we’ve been talking about in this course enough for it to be worth watching.  I thought maybe it would be loosely connected, but really just an excuse to watch a good movie instead of having class, but I was a little surprised to find pretty much all of the themes we’ve been talking about.  Leonard’s condition makes him easy to manipulate.  Every time he wakes up he is being manipulated first by his past self in the form of his tattoos and all his notes, and then potentially by the people who know him but he does not remember.  Burt from the hotel scams Leonard by charging him with two hotel rooms.  He is aware of most of this manipulation, though.  He knows about his condition and does what he can to live with it, unlike Sammy Jenkins.  Leonard seems unconcerned with truths and lies.  He doesn’t care about anyone’s interpretation of events – he relies only on facts.  It’s kind of ironic that a man with short-term memory loss is the one who can wade through the bullshit (pardon my French) and see facts as facts and everything else as either falsehoods or opinions, no middle ground.  There was even that little metatextual bit.  Leonard’s wife was reading a book she had already read before, and Leonard says “I always thought the joy of reading a book is not knowing what happens next,” to which his wife responds by saying that she enjoyed it anyway.  This is a cute little self-referencing defense of the style of the movie.  Not only has the movie applied pretty directly to the class, it is also extremely freakin awesome. Yay class!

A Pyrrhic Victory in the Making

While Memento certainly is a remarkable movie in terms of narrative , it was a small piece of characterization that actually stuck with me, not only in terms of its importance to the nature of the protagonist, but to the intention of the film as a whole. When speaking with Natalie in the diner, Leonard says “My wife deserves vengeance- [it] doesn't make any difference whether I know about it”. Other blog posts have discussed Leonard's dissociation from his memories, but his relationship with his mission is just as interesting. He is isolated in his quest for vengeance, and as Natalie accurately points out, Leonard will not be able to remember succeeding in his goal, even if he accomplishes it. Taken a bit farther, this line of reasoning leads us to a more important question; if Leonard succeeds in his goal, what is left for him?

As he himself admits, Leonard has no sense of how much time has passed since his wife's death and his injury. Regardless, it seems apparent that he has dedicated all of his time in searching for her killer. How could he be expected to do otherwise? His retained memories are just as strong through every period of sudden antegrade amnesia, and the shock and power of his tragedy are never sufficiently desensitized. As such, he has become a man with a singular, unwavering goal. As evidenced by his extensive tattoos, the “vengeance” that his wife deserves has been his only driving force, his only reason for living.

What can we really expect from a Leonard who achieves his goals? As Natalie says in their meeting, “...You're not going to remember it [getting vengeance]- you're not even going to remember it happened”. Yes, he could certainly take a memento of the event- a Polaroid, or a tattoo, perhaps. But after the next event of amnesia, he will not remember it, and the events of his wife's death will be just as strong. Can we really expect a simple memento to satisfy his repeated shock and anger? Even if it does, Leonard can no longer define himself through that struggle. He becomes purposeless, without any ability form brand new goals or ambitions.

Regardless of whether or not Leonard accomplishes his goals, I cannot see many positive ways this movie could end. If he succeeds, he loses his purpose, but the pain of his wife's death remains- in the best case scenario. What will he do with his anger, and the spirit of vengeance that remains with him even after said vengeance has been enacted? It would certainly be sufficient to drive him insane – if he isn't already.

Memories in Reverse

So far, I really like Memento, particularly how the story moves backwards in time from what seems to be the final scene to skipping through previous memories. These flashes of memories reveal moments and events that Leonard doesn’t seem to remember himself except through his notes and tattoos. As a viewer, I find myself having to readjust to new scenes and move in and out of context of the story as it skips back in chunks of time. It feels like you started reading a story at the end and keep jumping back in chunks and then reading to catch up to where you were, only to repeat the same process until you get to the beginning. These cycles of memories completely distort the audience’s sense of time because the story does not follow a normal chorological sequence of events. This idea is captured well when Leonard says: “How am I supposed to heal if I can’t…feel time?” His confusion caused by his inability to form new memories makes it so that he can never move forward with his life. The movie does an excellent job of making the viewers feel the same way.

Through the same repetitive cycles of memories that Leonard is dealing with, the viewers cant move forward with the story because they keep going backwards. In the same way that Leonard is constantly living in the present without any knowledge of the past other than his own notes, we too are always piecing the story together.

I have no idea how Memento is going to end. My best guess is that maybe Leonard killed the wrong man at the beginning of the movie and someone has been messing with him the whole time. Then again, that seems too obvious. However it ends though, the skipping back and forth so that the viewer loses their sense of time is very effective in sympathizing with the protagonist’s struggles in the film.

Memento Mori

            After consulting good ol’ Wikipedia for some background information on this film, I found out that Memento is based on a short story called “Memento Mori,” written by Nolan’s younger brother Jonathan. The story has the same premise as the movie: a man loses his wife and his short-term memory and sets out to kill the man who did it. The story follows the same narrative pattern that the movie does. The story has scenes written in italics (similar to the black-and-white used in the film) that seem to be letters explaining bits and pieces of the situation (similar to Leonard’s phone calls in the film). Those scenes alternate with scenes of the main character starting with a blank memory, slowly figuring out the situation, acting upon it before blanking again. This narrative style is effective in creating the same feeling of confusion in the reader/audience that the main character feels, as several of you have elaborated on in your posts. The story leaves even more unanswered questions and gaps the reader must fill in than the movie. The characters and plot are not developed as completely as they are in the film, (Jonathan) Nolan choosing to further develop themes and ideas instead. Much of this is most likely attributable to Hollywood trying to captivate people through plot twists and character relatability rather than abstract ideas.

            A clear manifestation of these differences is that while Christopher Nolan uses the manipulation of time as main a narrative device in the film, Jonathan makes it his central theme. The main manipulation of time in the movie is that it works backwards, somehow still creating suspense. This makes it unique among the plethora of psychological thrillers. Jonathan Nolan’s short story, however, does not manipulate time the same way in its narrative. The narrative is still disjointed just as the main character’s memories, but it still goes from beginning to end chronologically. Instead, Jonathan Nolan portrays a message about time. His creation of a character who can only remember a short time, a “ten minute man,” allows him to avoid all restrictions of past and present. His character loses his watch, symbolically getting rid of time all together. Nolan does not try to hide this message at all; his last couple paragraphs blatantly lay out these ideas that “time is an absurdity. An abstraction.” The plot ends with (SPOILER ALERT. Maybe?) the main character killing the man who murdered his wife, but the story still has another section in which Nolan makes sure to get his point across.

Read the short story here.

Why Have I Never Heard Of This Movie?

While talking to my friend on the phone, I told him that my Comp Lit class was watching Momento this week. He said, “Oh my God! That’s my favorite movie!” I questioned him about the ending. He replied that he did not understand the movie, and therefore could not explain it. How could a movie, that he hadn’t understood, be his favorite movie? This question troubled me because I am typically a fan of simple, romantic comedies featuring actors such as Ashton Kutcher or Ryan Gosling, so I didn’t expect to have a strong reaction to such a complex film, as my friend did.

I was completely engrossed in the movie. Momento is suspenseful, interesting, and confusing. By having what the viewer thinks is the end be the beginning, it implants the thought into the viewers’ minds that no matter what happens throughout the movie, you are comfortable in your knowledge of the ending. Therefore, you should not be too anxious while watching it, because you know the conclusion. However, I think that the “tease” of the outcome is more suspenseful than if the story were to play out in a linear fashion. I questioned the characters’ actions because I was trying desperately to comprehend how the film would play out in the end. I noticed that all the scenes in black and white were in sequential order, whereas the scenes in color were flashbacks. I think the director made the decision in order to highlight the dysfunction of Leonard’s brain. Due to this, the viewer is able to identify with Leonard’s confusion. 

Tick Tock

Nolan's manipulation of time is much like what we have seen by the authors we have read this semester. Although this is my first time seeing this film, I think I can already make comparisons between the structure of this film, and that of the works we have read thus far. We saw the manipulation of time in the first text we read, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, where the reader is led to believe that millisecond moments are actually extensive emotion and sense filled experiences. We see a more obvious manipulation of time in Kindred, where quite literally, time is rewound and moved forward for Dana and her husband. We ended our semester with Aura and House of Danger, which both contain this manipulation, but in very different ways. In House of Danger , the reader jumps forward and backward in time, experiencing a variety of different "realities". In contrast, Fuentes suspends time, thus fogging his readers' perception of reality in his novella Aura.
 In all these cases, including this film, the author or director uses time manipulation as a means to acquire control over the viewer. He or she is now in command of the progression of events and consequently how we feel about these occurrences, for we often determine our reaction to an event based on previous experiences. I believe that Nolan chooses to work backward in time in order to provoke certain feelings in his viewers. I expect these short rewound clips to some how converge at the end of the film, however I am hoping it is in an unexpected manner.

Grasping onto Reality

            After getting the basic premise of Memento within the first few minutes of watching the movie , my first thought was…”oh so its like the “highly revered” romantic comedy 50 First Dates!” Same general idea, right? Short term memory loss, can’t remember anything past a day or so. Obviously I was wrong, because unlike 50 First Dates, Memento is constantly manipulating the viewer by telling a story non-linearly, yet also non randomly. Instead of a silly romantic plot, Memento’s plot hints to the viewer a pattern in the order and repetition of clips, as well as the use of color verse black and white. Leonard, the main character, finds himself battling to hold onto truth and facts, which are constantly slipping away. After just a few minutes, it became very clear that we are watching Memento to tie together many of the themes of this semester.

            One area of the movie that I found especially intriguing is Leonard’s need to revenge even when he knows he will not be able to remember. Even after he kills John G, he cannot remember to feel the satisfaction and solace that such revenge brings to his life. Leonard’s drive for revenge does not come from a selfish personal desire, but rather it takes root in his feeling of obligation to his murdered wife. His longing for revenge even with his memory loss shows that Leonard is not one to believe in the concept of ignorant bliss. Leonard has the opportunity the take the easy way out. He can believe his wife “is only gone in the bathroom for a short time” for the remainder of his life. He can choose to forget the rape and murder, and although he will never be with his wife, he will also never see her as being gone forever. Instead, he chooses to burden himself with the truth when he reads on his chest that “John G raped and murdered your wife”. Just by looking in the mirror, Leonard destroys the potentially innocent life he has the opportunity to portray. Each important fact in Leonard’s life  is tattooed, showing his desire for the permanence of this choice to be conscious of reality

            I am looking forward to seeing how this dilemma concludes itself. Since we already know that John G has been murdered, I am very curious to see how Leonard moves on and if he finds another reason to keep himself aware of reality.  With John G killed, there is no need for Leonard to remain in the world of truth. His injury will very easily let him slip into the world of ignorance, however I don’t know if Leonard will let himself fall out of reality. 

LAST POST AHHHHH

            Memories have always fascinated me. I remember in 10^th grade a famous rapper (whose name I would know if I knew that kind of thing) came and spoke/ rapped at our school for our annual Martin Luther King Day assembly. One of his smaller points, but one that especially stuck with me, was the difficulty but importance of remembering truthfully. Leonard makes the same point, emphasizing the difference between memory and fact.  When I look back at a good class versus a bad class, a close friend versus someone who got on my nerves, even a year I was happy versus a year I less so, I always build up the good and overlook the bad. Sometimes a calming exercise when I’m stressed is to remember that during the best parts of my life I have been stressed. We always have days which, as my friend calls them, are just “funks”, and sometimes not letting them overwhelm us is the hardest part.

            Leonard claims that even if he doesn’t remember getting revenge for his wife, it still holds significance. I think that question is similar to the question of if we do something to help another and they never find out, is there still a point? And, quite obviously to me, there is. This is one of the true forms of being selfless.

            Honestly, this movie scared me more than anything else. I had never thought about how vital our memories are, not just to our quality of life, but also to surviving. People always say to “live in the moment” but our moment is so affected by our sure past and our inklings about the future. In fact, living completely in the moment is hardly possible. But after watching the first part of Momento, I realized this is actually a blessing. We have talked in this class about how our realities are shaped by our past experiences. Leonard still has a very real reality, but this reality is stuck at the time of the incident.  Overall this movie just made me feel so lucky to have a memory. Good memories save us in hard times; bad memories protect us in the future, and all memories are part of who we are.

How did this all begin?

At first I wondered how a movie going in reverse could keep suspense. Each time he flashes back to the next memory sequence he fills in another piece of the puzzle for us. Oddly enough the more he answers some questions the more confused I began to get. Where does this story start or rather how far will we go back? He always spoke about how he could only trust his handwriting. The problem with that is his handwriting is very generic and most likely easily reproduced. Also if I remember correctly the picture of Natalie has something crossed out and I keep wondering what used to be there. Was that of his own doing or did someone else cross that out. People don’t really have their signature way of crossing things out.  Regardless of that idea I want to find out if he killed the right guy or what the purpose of going backwards is. Obviously if everything worked out perfectly the movie would be going in chronological order though we would not feel the same way he does each time he forgets. Leonard also brings up an interesting idea that how can someone that can't remember even enjoy revenge? I feel like he is just a puppet remembering what someone wants him to remember. Once he kills his wife's supposed killer does someone simply tell him someone else killed his wife. It seems like all he remembers is a masked man killed his wife and that could be anyone. This will be a good question once we finish the movie, but is this the kind of movie that you only enjoy once because then it loses it effect once you know the mystery?

Christopher Nolan's Use of the Rewind Button

        Probably one of the coolest aspects of Memento that has always stuck with me since the first time I watched it has got to be that the entire film is shot in reverse, retroactively foreshadowing the scenes to come. However, amongst the reverse remains a sequence that remains the same in its linear fashion. It serves as sort of a hub for the rest of the plot to revolve and unfold around. This is distinguished by Nolan's use of black and white. This not only acts as a place holder in the film, but also as an agent for Leonard to narrate and elaborate upon the actions he takes concerning his condition.

        The scene that really struck me as iconic in regards to the reverse plot of this film was the opening scene. It was in this scene that Nolan effectively portrays the reverse nature of his film in a more literal manner. The seamless use of the reverse frames was portrayed in a very natural manner and acted as an effective metaphor for the film as a whole. For, in using a ratcheting plot, where scenes move forward yet backward in the same motion, Nolan was able to entrance his audience and create the illusion that this was the natural manner for events to unfold. Overall, I find this film to be very intriguing and interesting with an interesting timeline full of plot twists and suspense that seems to have more than one climax

memories and time

After watching the beginning of the movie, I started to wonder what causes manipulation. Solely based on the movie it seems to be two main causes of manipulation. Either time, or memories, but memories are intertwined with time. However, when manipulation is used, memories have to the ability to stand on its own. That is because memories orbit emotions themselves, and emotions such as love, hate, joy, sadness transcend time. Manipulation in the direct approach attacks the emotions of the one being manipulated. It is through emotions people blindly walk into manipulation. In the movie the protagonist may not remember, but he still has his emotions that transcends time. That is why when he looks at the tattoo across his chest he feels anger, and love for his dead wife. In addition, time itself can be manipulated. It is through his inability to place events in a linear line that allows for his environment to manipulate him. Literally it is the fact he cannot tell what event came first, that displays manipulation at work. Being manipulated through time shows that the individual is dependent on his environment. While being manipulated through memories shows internal forces that the person is unable to control. Both forms of manipulation show that a person is dependent on something else, the individual is not rational and it is because of this, society, is able to manipulated the person. If a person cannot think or feel through a rational mindset then they shall remind in a world constructed in order to see never the truth; therefore they live in a world engulfed in manipulation.

Memento

I’m not quite sure what to focus on in Memento because so much of it is so great.  First, let me just say that Christopher Nolan is a genius. The reverse chronology of the film is brilliant.  Not only is it an interesting break from the typical chronological movie, but also it emphasizes the confusion of Leonard’s memory loss.  Whenever we see a scene begin, we do not know where Leonard has come from or why he is there, just as Leonard himself is unclear as to his situation.  In an interview with journalist Anthony Kaufman, Nolan explains, “There's this weird irony, because you actually find yourself as a filmmaker in the position of the protagonist that has to trust these notes he's written himself… absolutely trust your initial instincts.”  This connection between the director and Leonard translates into a strong sense of being "lost" within the film. 

Nolan also brings up the notion of trust.  In Memento, it is impossible for Leonard to trust anyone but himself.  That’s why he only believes his own handwriting.  As a viewer, I found that I was also at a bit of loss regarding whom to trust, particularly because we only know bits and pieces of each character.  For instance, Natalie comes off as incredibly reliable at the beginning of the movie because she seems to be helping Leonard out of the goodness of her heart.  But then we learn that she sent him on a mission of vengeance and perhaps even framed Teddy for her own benefit.  We cannot tell as of yet whether Natalie is trustworthy, because just like Leonard, we have no information about her past.  I am anxiously awaiting discovering the true intentions of all of the characters and whether Leonard has killed the right man.

Source: http://www.indiewire.com/article/decade_christopher_nolan_on_memento

Slipping into Character

As I was watching Memento it occurred to me that the success of the film lay in its ability to make every viewer feel as Leonard feels. Every time Leonard wakes up he is thrust into a brand new world and the disjointed storytelling that we are presented with helps to mimic that. The film promotes empathy instead of just sympathy. As viewers we can find ourselves in Leonard's proverbial shoes and feel his sense of displacement and alienation that would accompany such a crippling disorder. Yet, we also feel his drive and forced order as the film logically progresses. The structure of the film perfectly duplicates the process in Leonard's mind and that provides greater access to the character.

On a separate note, I would like to speculate a little bit about the manipulation of Leonard; I believe that Natalie is at the crux of it.  She is the one that we have seen explicitly give information to Leonard so I think we can deduce that she is his main contact. This being said, she could easily make Leonard believe that the man who killed his wife was the man who killed Jimmy, Natalie’s something-or-other. Also, Natalie has already manipulated Leonard into beating up Dodd. She is taking advantage of him and I think this will lead back all the way to the first scene in the movie where Leonard shoots Teddy. 

Backwards Suspense

           I wanted to elaborate on something that I saw in Sandy’s blog post, where she talks about how “even though the film was backwards, it provided more suspense than a regular movie.” I completely agree with this sentiment, and found myself intrigued by this novel approach to storytelling. Usually, when a movie shows a scene from the future, it then shows all the events chronologically up to that scene. This builds its own sort of suspense, because the viewer continually wonders how the characters reach that point in the story. Memento is using this exact same concept, but instead is repeating it over and over again, allowing the viewer to discover what led Leonard to the previous scene while titillating them about the next discovery. This leaves the viewer in a constant state of anticipation. Furthermore, because it is interspersed with a scene from the distant past that continues to provide even more new information, the viewer is almost overwhelmed with the amount of information he or she has to process. I thought this was an interesting way to create the movie, and perhaps confusing at times.
             However, it does seem to almost imitate the way that Leonard has to remember his own life. Every time he rediscovers something he knew before he has to fit it into all the other information he is discovering for the first time. While realizing how confusing it was for me, it made me sympathize with his condition, and therefore drew me into the movie further. This way of storytelling also manipulates the viewer because they think they know what comes next and why, and then their perspective is completely changed. For instance, in the scene with the prostitute, I assumed that Leonard had hired her to fulfill his physical need, and then consequently felt guilty and wanted to rid himself of some reminders of his wife. However, it turns out she is there to fulfill a mental and emotional need, which I personally was not expecting. This manipulation comes implicitly with the style of storytelling because the viewer cannot stop themselves from making assumptions, and then having those assumptions ripped apart.

Nonlinear Lives

Since I am interested in movies, film, and all other kinds of visual narrative, I confess that while watching Memento, I was principally paying attention to the narrative mechanics, cinematography, dialogue, delivery, pacing, and all of those elements rather than searching for connections to our class work. However, the connections aren’t that difficult to find. There is, of course, this especially relevant quote: “Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.” This raises the question of our subjective view of reality, which can and is often led astray or colored by our perspectives, experiences, and other factors. And of course, the plot itself revolves around piecing together reality, or a version of reality, from clues and hints that must somehow be determined as ‘facts,’ although true facts are elusive. All of this correlates with the subjects we have been discussing for the past semester. The thing that I found the most relevant to our class and to the subject matter, however, was not a quote. Instead, I found that the nonlinear narrative structure especially emphasizes the flawed nature of memory and the way in which we piece together our lives from our experiences and the things we determine to be true or factual or real.

                We don’t remember our lives in a perfect sequence. The memories that were going through my mind as I walked back to my dorm after class yesterday weren’t a neat progression from my earliest memory to my latest, or even from breakfast to that present moment. Rather, memory jumps and skips and is triggered seemingly at random. Sometimes one memory will lead into another memory; sometimes it will form a loop that leads back to the present moment. Therefore, the use of a nonlinear narrative structure helps to emphasize that sense of ‘remembering.’ When the scene cuts to another one of Leonard’s memories, it is like we are remembering it along with him. As these memories start to connect to one another, although still not in a linear sequence, we feel as though we are piecing together the story of Leonard’s life the way he is. The movie could have told the story of a man’s quest for revenge in a linear fashion, with clues discovered one after the other leading to a climax, but the effect and the verisimilitude would not be the same. As it is, the structure is more true to our sense of life and experience. We define ourselves largely by our interactions and experiences, and we store these things in our memory. Memory is perhaps our most important tool in constructing ourselves. And that is what the nonlinear narrative conveys- a sense of construction, filtering the world into pieces and sorting through those pieces for the clues to who were are.

Set Up For Failure

Not to point out the obvious, but this guy’s plan is clearly not fool proof. Just as Teddy has repeatedly pointed out to him, those notes could be leading him astray. Also, if he forgets to write something down, then he is guaranteed to forget it, which also throws him off. Natalie seems to be the prime culprit of manipulating Leonard within the movie. Her boyfriend Jimmy has disappeared without any clues given to where he could be. Tattooed onto Leonard’s leg is the “fact” that the man who killed his wife was named either Jimmy or John. Natalie conveniently finds him information that matches Teddy’s description and manipulates Leonard into thinking that Teddy has been deceiving him regarding his true identity. Natalie hands him a license plate that matches the one that is tattooed on his thigh and it all seems to connect back to Teddy. This is the essential problem with Leonard’s “facts”. While they may be true, and they may fit the description of the man who killed his wife, anyone can manipulate details in order to fit the description that he is looking for. Unfortunately for him, the “facts” are the only thing that he trusts, and he won’t even be able to remember if someone takes advantage of him.

That is a larger scale manipulation that is happening but even the minor characters within the plot mess with him immensely. Burt, the motel manager, booked him in two different rooms so that he pays for both of them. He also haves him reiterate his condition to him even though he has heard it countless times before. Although both of these instances are harmless, it still demonstrates the ease at which others have control over Leonard.