...must
remember not to forget...
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The
Reverse Genius Principle.
by
Jon Dunmore © 28 Nov 2006.
9)
And that's when we realize we could never be sure of anything
to begin with.
8)
When Leonard eventually thinks he has found his wife's killer,
eleventh-hour reveals shock us with the possibility that
his whole crisis may be nothing more than delusion.
7)
Editing this movie must have been like navigating inside
Las Vegas hotels with no watch or compass: sex and drug
distractions, deprivation of day or night, no signposts
or exit signs, and of course, nauseous on cheap shrimp and
hairy tequila. Untold credit to editor, Dody Dorn, for shuffling
the deck as confusingly as possible, yet weaving the tale
as tightly as a sanitarium wicker basket.
6)
But every few minutes, the movie twists back on itself,
each flashback a segment of Leonard's life that happened
just before the segment we have just seen - and with each
flashback, we realize just how wrong Leonard is about who
his friends are, his past life, clues to the killer, his
quest in toto. By about the fourth paragraph we realize:
this piece is running backwards.
5)
From Jonathan Nolan's short story, Memento Mori,
we meet Leonard mid-investigation, slumming it in a cockroach
motel, having lost his job as insurance consultant, looking
disheveled (as Guy Pierce can do so natchelly), and optimistically
on the trail of the murderer; hanging with gregarious Teddy
(Joe Pantoliano), and involved with hot bod, Natalie (Carrie-Anne
Moss), both of whom seem to be aiding Leonard catch his
killer.
4)
Leonard's last "new memory" was the murder of
his wife. During the scuffle with his wife's killer, a blow
to the head caused his memory faculty to shut down. Whether
this is truly biologically possible (if you cannot make
new memories, how do you even shop for food and water or
pay the rent?), for the movie's purposes, it means Leonard
must piece together clues to his wife's killer through copious
notes, tattoos on his own body and Polaroids. But the truth
will forever elude him and the clues that lead to the killer
are mere wraiths, the products of his own "selective"
reasoning.
3)
The harder you strive for something, the harder it is to
grasp. But what you care least about - or that you were
never striving for - falls into your lap. Some call this
the path of least resistance, but it's actually called The
Reverse Genius Principle. And Leonard - all ephemeral ideas
and misplaced action - is a Reverse Genius in full throttle.
2)
Guy Pearce is the memory-challenged Leonard, who is trying
so hard to move forward - to find his wife's killer, but
unable to create "new memories" to retain info
- that he ends up moving backward. Thusly, writer-director
Christopher Nolan has crafted a film where the clues to
a murder fall neatly OUT of place. Backwards.
1)
Memento opens with a killing. We don't know why.
We don't know who.
END
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