Memento Review

Momento is an incredibly complex movie. With a simple story told in a non-linear non-chronological time format, it’s a movie you must watch attentively.

In fact, this is the time graph of the movie.

Information Symmetry

The order of the parts in this movie lead to Information Symmetry. We know just as much* as Leonard during each scene of the movie. As Leonard learns something that happened, we learn it too, leading to the audience having no extra knowledge.

This is one of my favorite parts of this movie, being just as confused as Leonard brews engagement and interest and is a great design choice.

Characters

There are 2 main characters which drive the story, Teddy and Natalie. At the very start of the movie, we are introduced to Teddy with a bit of skepticism, especially because Leonard just killed him. As we go further back (or forward lol), we are led to believe that Teddy is John G and was rightfully murdered.

Natalie, who was introduced as against Teddy initially appears to be on Leonard’s side, but we eventually learn her intentions as well.

Every character in his movie is morally gray, with arguments easily being made against and for each character being a good person. For example, is Leonard just trying to avenge his wife, or is he a homicidal maniac who kills people to give his life purpose? Is Teddy just a police officer giving Leonard something to believe in or a manipulator forcing Leonard to live a false life? Is Natalie helping Leonard out offset her making him take care of Dodd?

The Reveal

This is my favorite part of the movie by far, and for good reason. The entire movie has been building up to this moment while keeping it unpredictable. The ending of the reveals the loop Leonard is stuck in along with what really happened to his wife in a sad but captivating way, and rewards all the time put into watching the film, beautifully tying up the ends of the story and linking the gray-scale and colored scenes.