Memento movie review and film criticism course for advanced ESL students based on the English Immersion Program
Memento movie trailer
Watch Memento movie trailer below to get more familiar with this film.
Memento movie review
Memento is a 2000 American neo-noir mystery psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, based on the short story “Memento Mori” by his brother, Jonathan Nolan, which was later published in 2001. The film follows Leonard Shelby (Pearce), a man who suffers from anterograde amnesia—resulting in short-term memory loss and the inability to form new memories—who uses an elaborate system of photographs, handwritten notes, and tattoos in an attempt to uncover the perpetrator who killed his wife and caused him to sustain the condition.
Many medical experts have cited Memento as featuring one of the most realistic and accurate depictions of anterograde amnesia. Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch called Memento “the most accurate portrayal of the different memory systems in the popular media”, while physician Esther M. Sternberg, Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, identified the film as “close to a perfect exploration of the neurobiology of memory.”
Source: Wikipedia
Questions for discussion
- In Memento, Leonard keeps notes everywhere. Why can’t he trust his own memory, and how do these notes help him?
- The movie jumps back and forth in time. How does this timeline confusion relate to Leonard’s condition?
- Leonard is obsessed with finding his wife’s killer. Does he ever get revenge, and is it what he expected?
Memento is a movie released in the year 2000 and directed by Christopher Nolan.
It is about a man called Leonard ( Lenny) who seeks revenge for the murder of his wife. But he has this condition that makes the situation even more challenging for him, he suffers from short-term memory loss and is unable to remember anything after the incident.
He keeps writing notes to be able to follow the case and his foundings to solve the case.
The interesting fact about this movie is that it moves backwards and follows a reversed chronological order. This technique and type of storytelling gives the viewers this experience to put themselves in Leonard’s shoes, and just like Leonard, face the confusion and uncertainty he faces throughout the story and the struggle of trusting people around him.
I liked the movie very much and the the plot twist at the end surprised me.
Such a thorough review on the film, Memento, in a comment! Thank you so much. I also got this message from Memento that our perception based on our memories could sometimes be misleading. Absolute reality and our ever-changing memories sometimes do not match. As mentioned in the film, facts and statistics should additionally be utilized in sync with memories to yield a more accurate perception of reality.
Please answer at least one of the questions in the Questions for discussion section of this post in this comment box. There are 3 questions in this section, and you should answer at least one of them.