Memento

Memento is a story about Leonard Shelby who has short term memory loss from a blow to the head he received when two attackers came to his house raping and killing his wife.  Leonard killed one attacker but the other one got away.  Leonard then makes it his life’s mission to hunt down the second attacker.  Due to his lack of memory, Leonard must take Polaroid pictures, leave himself notes, and tattoo important things onto himself.  He works with Natallie and Teddy who he thinks will help him.  Teddy tells him that he has already killed the second attacker because in reality Teddy is the second attacker, so he wants Leonard to think that he has no need to keep his hunt going.  After gathering clues and gaining information Leonard finds out that Teddy is actually John Gammel.  So Leonard finds out that Teddy is who he is and takes him to an abandoned place where he kills Teddy. 

The main parts in this movie that put it together are color, order, and time control.  These three concepts put the movie together but also make the movie very confusing.  At times it is extremely hard to follow because of the way the movie is set up.  In some movies these help lay out the plot but for this movie it just makes it confusing. 

Color in this movie is used sparingly.  When the color is being used it is used effectively showing action going that is going on.  When there is color in the movie is going on in reverse chronological order showing what has already happened and then it explains what happened before.  But the use of color is good.  Things are vibrant and show action well.  The use of different colors also helps to show how confused he really was about what was going on. 

Order, the order of this movie, in my opinion, is very poor.  Nothing makes sense because of how it is placed.  If the movie had gone in reverse chronological order the whole time it would have been easier to understand but the fact that it went back and forth throughout made it hard to keep the plot in line.  The order did not sit well with me because it was hard to tell who he was going after at a given time.  The order of this movie was poor and could have been executed in a much better fashion.

Time control was probably the best thing in this movie.  I believe that they used time well and was used effectively to keep the rhythm of the movie going.  Time control can be one of the best things in a movie if it is used correctly; I believe that it was used correctly because the movie didn’t drag on.  The producers of this movie used this aspect to their advantage, especially when the rest of the movie was laid out horribly.  Time control is the only thing that this movie has going for it.  They managed to control the time well enough to keep me watching.