We don’t know what role the other characters play in this film until the end when the whole meaning of the film is revealed to us. This also presents problems because we do not know who we can trust as being Leonard’s friends as their influence upon the killing of his wife isn’t revealed until the end of the film and the beginning of Leonard’s events.
The equilibrium of the audiences expectations are distorted from the very start. Most audiences would expect the film to start at the beginning and work its way through to the end, but this film does the opposite. Straight away this alters the expectations of the audience. This is a hard equilibrium to come to terms with and requires a great deal of thinking to be able to understand it. It is not a spoon fed film like Armageddon, you have to work out the who’s whys and what’s for yourselves. This is a clever trick to filmmaking as it makes for compulsive viewing. This method of film can either gain critical acclaim or critical ridicule.
We begin with the new equilibrium pattern of the film going backwards, this is continued throughout the film but the equilibrium of Leonard knowing who the killer is but not how he found out or why the killer did it is distorted when we discover how he pieced together this puzzle and the run through of all the events is flashbacked to us. This is now the new equilibrium; knowing why Leonard killed the man he killed at the start and knowing everything that happened during the time of the murder of the killer and his wife’s rape and murder. Ten this equilibrium is distorted again when we discover that his wife was not killed in the assault but because she was given the incorrect dosage of insulin by Leonard, but because he will not remember this he and Teddy decide to blame the death upon the cop Sammy Jankis.
It is hard to know what role each character plays; Leonard is obviously the hero because he is trying to fight evil, the man who killed his wife. He could also be the anti-hero though because although he is fighting the evil he is doing it by committing crime as well, he is a murderer also. This is worsened by the fact that Leonard kills a man who did not kill his wife only assaulted her. Sammy Jankis we believe to be a donor someone who helps Leonard with his research but he turns out to be the bad guy who killed his wife. The cop on the phone in the black and white scenes who we only know as Teddy is also a donor as he is the feeder of the suggestions which Leonard researches upon. Natalie is hard to be labeled as a set character. We wonder throughout the film whether there was ever anything going on with Natalie and Leonard but because of his amnesia we never discover it.
The audience’s judgment of right and wrong is torn apart in this film. We all see murder as being wrong, but because it is the tortured man who kills his victim because he believes he killed his wife, we tend to take the vindictiveness off of the murder and we almost accept it as being the right thing to do. Leonard’s condition makes us sympathize with him and this is what adds to our distortion of right and wrong.
The constant use of flashbacks and repetition of events helps to understand the pain Leonard constantly suffers. It also helps us piece together the puzzle that Leonard is also trying to complete.
The costume and setting is very everyday and looks normal to us. There is no flashy clothing, vehicles like a James Bond film, this helps us get inside the film and search for the clues. We can relate to the situation more easily because of it and empathize with the characters more readily. Another aspect which helps this is the camera angles. They are generally shot as if we are standing next to Leonard watching his every movement and seeing everything he is doing. It makes you want to jump out and tell him what is happening, that is if you even know yourself.
The narrative of Memento is very complicated until the end of the film when it all conjoins and slots into each other, then everything makes sense and you understand why certain things were shot that way and why things happened the way they did.
