Memento: Inescapable Void

As viewers, we know how the story ends, but the question remains as to how the story began. Therein lies the dilemma. Find the answer to that question and all will be revealed…or will it?

Writer/Director Christopher Nolan begins the opening scene with an image of a Polaroid picture fading into nothing, setting the tone for the entire movie; we know someone was murdered – we know the “who dunnit”, sort of, but it remains to be discovered who the murdered person was and why he was murdered. Instead of each scene answering questions to move us to the next scene, it asks questions which propel us backwards, deeper into the world of Leonard Shelby.

Layer upon layer of information is added to flesh out the story and bring it to life. We meet the characters before we truly know who they are, which creates more intrigue. The film allows the audience to view the effects of actions before revealing the actions themselves. This permits the full implications of the end results to settle in further than if viewed in normal beginning-to-end sequence.

It is only at the very end of the black and white phone call sequence – when it fades into color following Jimmy Grantz’s murder – that the viewer realizes the phone conversation leads up to the actual beginning of the story. It is through the black and white sequence we discover the tattoos; a wonderful way to diversify the concept of note-taking. The tattoos were items of larger importance than the typical day-to-day notes. “John G. raped and murdered my wife” is obviously far more important than directions to his hotel or a description of Dodd. Even Leonard hints at this by telling the caller, “Where you put your notes is important”. He isn’t referring to the tattoos, but rather mentions having a jacket with six pockets, each pocket for a particular thing. The implications, however, are clear, the permanence, unmistakable.

The black and white sequence also provides insight into Leonard’s mind; they supply Leonard’s life before “the incident”. His guilt over Sammy Jankis is as much a motivation to find his wife’s killer as was his wife’s murder – a redemption, of sorts. It isn’t until Leonard is in the same position as Sammy of not having any short-term memory that he truly understands this himself.

Leonard refuses to find himself in the same position as Sammy, however, using his own wife’s murder as motivation to continue living. “You really need a system if you’re going to make it work,” Leonard states to the anonymous caller, referring, of course, to his note taking. Leonard uses “habit and routine” to make his life possible, unlike Sammy who had “no drive, no reason to make it work”.

This plays into the larger scheme of the movie by hinting at Leonard’s confusion brought about by his lack of short-term memory – his determination not to fade into what could be an inescapable void. Who can he trust? Can he even trust himself? The only thing Leonard seems to trust is him own handwriting, stating to the caller, “You kind of learn to trust your own handwriting”, though even that comes into question when Teddy tells Leonard that his notes could be unreliable. Leonard refutes that stating, “I go on facts, not recommendations”. Note taking is more reliable than memory. Sometimes.

Anonymity also plays a big role and was referenced throughout Memento. The voiceover speaks of anonymous hotel rooms in a general sense. Leonard wakes up in another anonymous hotel room with a gun in the drawer. He doesn’t remember who anyone is, regardless of the pictures he takes to help him keep track of what is going on. He knows he’s supposed to know them, but he doesn’t remember. He trusts his pictures and his notes, but he can’t remember how to get to his hotel room, who is helping him, who is working against him, or why he’s supposed to go somewhere; Leonard Shelby is anonymous and what he does is questionable at best. The other characters remain anonymous, as well, until further revealed as the movie progresses.

Christopher Nolan uses foreshadowing that is full of irony and is darkly comic. When conversing with Burt Hadley, the desk clerk at Discount Inn, Leonard states, “Hope my condition isn’t going to be a problem for you”. Burt replies, “Not as long as you remember to pay the bill. We find out later that Leonard has been billed for two separate rooms at the hotel.

When Teddy asks about Leonard’s progress concerning John G. he says, “The other day you mentioned that maybe someone was trying to set you up. Get you to kill the wrong guy”. This comes up again during a scene between Leonard and Natalie. Leonard states that, “something doesn’t feel right. I think someone’s fucking with me, trying to get me to kill the wrong guy”. Later, we find out that both statements are true on two accounts: One, Leonard kills John Gammell aka Teddy because Teddy used him for his own ill-gotten gains, (Leonard uses his wife’s death to continue searching for John G., and John Gammell becomes the object of Leonard’s obsession), and two, Natalie uses Leonard to go after Dodd who she wants out of the picture to avoid having to deal with him. Additionally, Dodd asks Leonard about the car he’s driving, foreshadowing that the car wasn’t Leonard’s to begin with.

The “backwardness” of the movie is also a thread that shows up throughout Leonard’s story. “John G. raped and murdered my wife” is tattooed backwards across Leonard’s chest. In conversation with Burt, Leonard states that his condition is “like you just woke up”. Burt commiserates by saying, “That must suck. It’s all backwards. Maybe you got an idea about what you want to do next, but you don’t remember what you just did”.

Memento is all about putting the puzzle together, something that Leonard hints at during the first flashback of his wife. Leonard calls the fragments of memory a way to “get the feel of a person”. He’s putting together the puzzle of finding his wife’s murderer while the audience is putting together the intricate web of characters and storyline.

The question of time plays an important role, as well. Because the time scheme of Memento is indefinite, Leonard doesn’t know how long his wife has been gone, how long he’s been alone, or how long he’s been searching. He asks himself “How am I supposed to heal if I can’t feel time?” How do we, as the audience, know if Leonard’s found the person he’s been seeking? How do we know he hasn’t already found him?

It isn’t until the very last scenes of the movie that we realize that Teddy has been using him all along; that the person Leonard had been seeking was found over a year previously. The irony lies in the fact that because Leonard can’t remember killing the person who murdered his wife, he’ll never be able to heal.

Because he can’t remember killing the person who murdered his wife, will Leonard continue stalking “John G.’s” in order to make his life meaningful and worth living? Will he continue to create his own reality? His determination not to fade into an inescapable void seems to disappear as quickly as his memories fade.