I have to begin this one with a warning:
If you are somebody who gets easily distracted and has a very low concentration power, please do NOT watch this film. If you don't fall into that category, you MUST watch this brilliant movie by the man who has given us fascinating films like The Dark Knight & The Prestige, Christopher Nolan
Very few films have a striking scene right in the beginning to mark something essential to the story that is about to unfold. Mementouses this technique and what you see in the first scene (the polaroid photograph of a person shot in the head, slowly begins to fade)is when you realize that the story is going backwards. The importance of the reverse procedure lies in the fact that the protagonist Leonard Shelby(played by Guy Pearce) suffers from a certain form of amnesia, in which the person fails to create new memories, after the event that caused the amnesia. Therefore to feel the same confusion and the chaos as the main character, the audience is made to view the film backwards.
The film has two narratives:
The Black & White Mode in which Leonard Shelby is sitting in a motel room, talking to an unknown person on the phone and he tells the person about a certain Sammy Jenkins that he'd met when he was an insurance investigator. Sammy has the same form of amnesia- Anterograde Amnesia. This mode of the film follows a linear chronology and the audience is able to understand what was the incident that occurred to Leonard and caused himAnterograde Amnesia.
The Colour Mode of the film is the narrative that goes in reverse swing. A guy named Teddy is shot in the head; Leonard has tattoos all over his body, with instructions to find a man called "John.G"and kill him. He meets a bartender called Natalie (Carrie-Ann Moss) whose boyfriend Jimmy has been missing and strangely,Leonard is wearing the same clothes as Jimmy and driving the same car! The movie confuses you, only to build up the anxiety.
Believe me, when you have put 2 from the Black & White mode and 2 from the Colour mode together, you will figure out the whole mystery of Leonard Shelby but by then, my dear friend, the story ends. That, is the most beautiful aspect of the film. You will not be able to figure out what is the real deal and when you do, you'll know you're out of time cos the charade ends only because you have given up!
Christopher Nolan is beyond brilliant and when you watch this film, you will understand that It is not the actors alone who make a good film but a prudent and skilled director who has the confidence to twist the story and braid the chronology without making a mess out of it.
Watch this one because It is daunting and intimidating. This is one film that I watched with so much of concentration. Had anyone measured/calculated the intensity of my concentration, my name would have appeared in the Guinness Book Of World Records!
And please, don't say Ghajini is a remake of this film because one should understand that you don't copy such a brilliant work. There can be only one masterpiece and that's Memento!
