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.