MYST- Memento

  So we watched the first part of this movie in class last quarter, but some of you may not remember the plot. Here is a quick summary: A man named Lenard has a mental condition where he is unable to make new memories and he is trying to find the man who murdered and killed his wife. We view the first half of the story in black in white going forwards, and the second half in color going backwards, ending at the starting point of the last scene. This creates a lot of mystery and confusion on what is going on as well as defining the morality of all the characters. The story takes a crazy amount of twists and terns, by the end of the movie you will be scratching your head but you will be sufficiently satisfied in you movie experience.

This is a Christopher Nolan film, who also did the Dark Knight movies and Inception. This movie was very intriguing in terms of cinematic qualities and character development. I have now watched the movie two times and I have picked up on so much more, not only in the plot but also in what Nolan does with the camera. Something that caught my attention this time was the tight camera work the entire way through the film. We only see a long shot 2 or 3 times the entire movie. This choice actually plays up the intensity of the film because we seem to experience everything as Lenard does, we never can see the whole picture. This theme is also highlighted by the color scenes that run backwards. Just like Lenard we have no idea how we get to the place in which this scene is starting.

As was mentioned in class this does have a lot of Film Noir elements to it. All of the characters have done something wrong in some way. Even the guy who manages the motel checks him into two rooms because Lenard can't remember. The black and white scenes add a lot to the Film Noir feel and it also has the post modern style of many truths. But I think the most notable and obvious feature of the movie is the femme fatale. I will spoil this for anyone who actually is interested in seeing the movie, so stop reading if you think that you might actually see this film. The girl who is the femme fatale you think you trust because the first four scenes that you see her she is nothing but loving and helpful. So when she turns on him and says to his face that his wife was a whore and that she is going to enjoy taking advantage of him because he is such a freak, you are blown away by how much of an absolute B***h she is.

Overall, it was mind-bending, action packed, confusing, philosophical and thoroughly entertaining. I would recommend having the clicker on hand just in case you miss some dialogue. Almost everything they say is deceptively important.  The acting is fairly good across the board, which is good because there are only 5 or 6 significant  characters in the entire thing and one bad actor would more than likely ruin it. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.